RETROSPECTION 


HUBERT  HOWE   BANCROFT 


RETROSPECTION 


OTHER  WORKS 

WEST  AMERICAN  SERIES  OF  HISTORIES 

RESOURCES  OF  MEXICO 

LITERARY  INDUSTRIES 

THE  BOOK  OF  THE  FAIR 

THE  BOOK  OF  WEALTH 

THE  NEW  PACIFIC 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 

EXPANSION  AND  EMPIRE 

Building  of  the  Republic  —  The  English  Colonies  —  Northwest 
Coast  and  the  Fur  Trade  —  Acquisition  of  Louisiana  and 
California  —  The  Oregon  Question  —  Interoceanic  Canal  — 
Nicaragua  or  Panama  —  The  Spanish  War  —  Philippine  Islands 

—  Imperialism. 

CHAPTER  II 

UTOPIAN  DREAMS 

Altruistic  Ideals  —  Precept  and  Practice  —  Economic  Conditions 

—  Passion  for  Proselyting  —  The  Scotch  at  Darien  Isthmus  — 
South  Sea  Bubble  —  William  Penn's  Utopia  —  The  Franciscans 
in  California  —  Missionaries  in  Oregon  —  The  Mormon  Eruption 

—  Polygamy  and  Politics  —  Mormon  Exodus  to  Utah. 

CHAPTER  HI 

THE  SILENT  MYSTERY  OF  THE  UNTENANTED  PLAINS 
Rise  and  Trend  of  Civilization  —  Expeditions  of  Vaca,  Niza,  Coro- 
nado,  Parades,  and  Drake  —  The  Northern  Mystery  —  Conjec- 
tural Geography  —  Mythical  Cities  of  Cfbola  and  Quivira  — 
California  an  Island  —  Strait  of  Anian  —  Interior  of  Savage 
Enchantment. 

CHAPTER  IV 

MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT 
Characteristics  of  the  English  Colonists  —  Milestones  of  Progress 

—  The    Call   Westward   —   Application    of    Steam    —   Historic 
Highways  —  Turnpikes  and  Canals  —  Pathways  of  the  Plains 

—  Opening  of  the  Continental  Interior  —  Sutter  at  Sacramento 

—  Sam  Brannan  and  His  Saints  in  California. 


vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  V 
SOME  OHIO  YANKEES 

Migrations  Through  the  Alleghanies  —  Settlements  in  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi  Valleys  —  The  Licking  Land  Company  —  Granville 
Old  and  New  —  Personal  Affairs  —  New  England  Life  in  Ohio 
—  Religion  and  Education  —  Abolitionism  and  Underground 
Railroading  —  Mid-century  Politics  in  the  West. 

CHAPTER  VI 
THE  CALL  OF  GOLD 

Marshall  and  Sutter  —  Peculiar  Conditions  Attending  Gold  Discov- 
ery —  Effect  on  Commerce  and  Finance  —  Decadence  of  His- 
pano-Californians  —  Ruin  of  Sutter  and  Vallejo  —  Men  of  Em- 
pire, Not  of  Money  —  Effect  of  Gold  Shipments  during  Civil 
War  —  Loyalty  of  California. 

CHAPTER  VII 

AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER 

California  Coast  in  1835  —  Personal  Experiences  —  The  Voyage  in 
1852  —  Isthmus  Transit  —  Imperial  Panama  —  Entrepot  of 
the  Pacific  —  Land  of  Romance  and  Adventure  — -  Expeditions 
Thence  —  New  World  Rendezvous  —  California  in  the  Early 
Fifties  —  A  San  Francisco  Gambling  Palace. 

CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRONTIERS 

The  Atlantic  Frontier  Receding  Westward  —  The  Pacific  Frontier 
Drifting  Eastward  —  The  Wilderness  Between  —  Human  Rights 
and  Human  Wrongs  —  Land  Purchase  and  Indian  Pacification  — 
Penn's  Method  —  Meeting  of  the  Frontiers  —  Disappearance  of 
the  Natives. 

CHAPTER  IX 
A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE 

Economic  and  Ethnic  Combinations  —  New  Americans  —  Intermin- 
gling of  Types  —  Transmigration  and  Transformation  —  Geo- 
graphical Provinces  and  Types  -  -  Migratory  Virginians  and 
Yankees  —  The  North  Pacific  Anglo-American  —  California 
Miner  of  the  Flush  Times. 


CONTENTS  vii 

CHAPTER  X 
THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS 

People  and  Events  at  Yerba  Buena  Cove  —  Rise  of  Justice  — 
Hounds  or  Regulators  —  Vigilance  Committee  —  Australia 
Criminals  and  Southern  Chivalry  —  Outbreak  of  Crime  in  Mon- 
tana —  San  Francisco's  Grand  Tribunal  of  1856  —  James  King 
of  William  —  John  Nugent  —  Justice  Terry. 

CHAPTER  XI 
THE  INTERREGNUM 

The  Swing  of  Time  —  A  Period  of  Rest  —  Political  Parties  — 
Career  of  Broderick  —  Mexican  Land  Titles  —  Growth  of  Manu- 
factures —  Favorable  Economic  Conditions  —  Mining  and  Agri- 
culture —  Gambling  in  Stocks  —  Secessionists  —  Premium  on 
Gold  —  Specific  Contract  Law. 

CHAPTER  XII 

EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME 

Mid-Century  Finance   —  The   Mexican   War  —  The  Civil  War  — 
Doctrine  of  Inequality  Before  the  Law  —  The  True  Criminal 
Class   —   Modern    Business    Ethics  —   Increase   of   Wealth    - 
Tendency    to    Moral    Obliquity    —    Influence    of    Railroads    and 
Subsidies  —  Justice  and  Journalism  —  Soms  of  Our  Presidents. 

CHAPTER  XIII 
THE  DARK  AGE  OF  GRAFT 

Epoch  in  History  —  Overland  Railway  —  Betrayal  of  the  People 
—  Credit  Mobilier  —  Introduction  of  High  Criminality  —  Eco- 
nomic and  Political  Domination  —  Decline  of  Industries  —  The 
Great  Afraid  —  Debased  Legislation  —  Civic  Debauchery  — 
Rule  of  Schmitz  and  Ruef  —  Deliverance. 

CHAPTER  XIV 
THE  INJUSTICE  OF  LAW 

Primary  Principles  —  English  Law  Courts  —  The  Jury  System  — 
Judicial  Skill  in  Technicalities  —  The  Hollow  Power  of  Prece- 
dent —  Judges  as  Law-Makers  —  Judges  as  Law-Breakers  — 
The  Law  as  a  Fetish  —  The  Judiciary  Recall  and  the  People. 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XV 

AN  UNHOLY  ALLIANCE 

Selfishness  of  Good  Men  —  Conspiracy  for  Bad  Government  —  A 
Pair  of  Pats  —  Gunpowder  and  Dynamite  in  Court  Practice  — 
Effective  Work  of  Heney  and  Burns  —  Strictures  of  the  Preda- 
tory Press  —  Ruef's  Career  —  The  Sowing  of  the  Dragon's  Teeth 

—  Infelicity  of  the  Bribers  —  Effect  of  the  Fire  of  1906. 

CHAPTER  XVI 

COMPARATIVE  REPUBLICANISM 
Porfirio  Diaz  and  Benito  Juarez  —  Their  Genius  and  Achievements 

—  A  Half-Savage  Populace  —  Necessity  of  Arbitrary  Rule  - 
Signal   Services   of   Diaz   —  French   Intervention   —   Defeat   of 
Maximilian  —  Peace  and  Prosperity  —  Economic  Development 

—  Treachery  —  Ingratitude  —  Return  to  Anarchy. 

CHAPTER  XVII 
EVOLUTION  OF  A  LIBRARY 

A  Fortuitous  Undertaking  —  The  Routine  of  Collecting  —  The  Ter- 
ritory Covered  —  Expeditions  Abroad  —  Pinart  and  Petrof  in 
Alaska  —  Historical  Dictations  —  Archives  of  the  Vigilance 
Committees  —  The  Maximilian  Collection  —  Russian  Material  — 
Archives  of  Mexico  and  Spanish  America  —  Special  Search  in 
Europe. 

CHAPTER  XVIII 
METHODS  OF  WRITING  HISTORY 

A  Mixed  Mass  of  Material  —  Classifying  and  Indexing  —  Old  Meth- 
ods Inadequate  —  Drilling  Assistants  for  the  Work  —  Extract- 
ing and  Arranging  the  Material  —  Cooperative  Methods  Not 
Feasible  —  Inception  of  the  General  Plan  —  Important  Inter- 
views for  Filling  Gaps  —  Special  Work  with  Diaz  in  Mexico  — 
Collateral  Histories  and  Dictations. 

CHAPTER  XIX 
ASIA  AND  AFRICA  IN  AMERICA 

First  Coming  of  Chinese  —  Hearty  Welcome  with  Fair  Promises  — 
Ill-treatment  in  the  Mines  —  Eruption  of  the  Sand-Lotters  — 
Ireland  Sets  the  Pace  —  Broken  Pledges  and  Demagogism  — 
Imposition  and  Persecution  —  The  Impossible  African. 


CONTENTS  ix 

CHAPTER  XX 
THE  THROES  OF  LABOR 

Capital  as  Crystallized  Labor  —  Militant  Attitude  of  Labor  — 
Tyrannies  of  the  Industrial  Life  —  Cupidity  of  Capital  —  Arbi- 
trary Demands  of  Labor  —  Wages,  Trusts,  Strikes,  and  Mo- 
nopolies of  Industry  —  The  Labor  Leaders. 


CHAPTER  XXI 
MODERN  JOURNALISM 

Impelling  Force  Behind  the  Newspaper  —  Mendacity  as  Stock  in 
Trade  —  The  Great  Sunday  Edition  —  As  a  Teacher  of  Truth, 
Honesty,  Artistic  Taste,  and  Morality  —  Price  of  Civic  Loyalty 
and  Integrity  —  Charms  of  Vilification  and  Scandal. 

CHAPTER  XXII 
VAGARIES  OF  SOCIETY 

Neurotic  Temperament  of  the  Idle  Rich  —  Decadence  of  the  Race  — 
Sham  and  Conventionalities  —  Indifference  to  Vice  —  Inter- 
national Marriages  —  High  Crime  and  High  Society  —  Mental 
and  Moral  Sterility  —  Slavery  of  Fashion. 

CHAPTER  XXIII 
WASTE  IN  EDUCATION 

The  Imperative  and  Ever-Recurring  Need  —  Waste  of  Men  and 
Spoliation  of  Women  —  Present  System  Detrimental  to  the 
Higher  Rural  Life  —  Overcrowded  Professions  —  Oamped  City 
Life  —  A  Little  Lesson  in  Pronunciation  —  Tainted  Men  and 
Tainted  Money. 

CHAPTER  XXIV 

METROPOLITAN  SAN  FRANCISCO 

Our  Seraphic  Father  and  the  Good  God  Plutus  —  Six  Great  Fires, 
and  the  Seventh  —  During  the  Flush  Times  —  Development  of  a 
New  Society  —  Law  and  Lawlessness  —  Curse  of  the  Labor 
Monopoly  —  Wanted,  Men  and  Manufactures. 


x  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XXV 
PROGRESSIVE  GOVERNMENT 

Significance  of  the  Movement  —  A  Moral  Revolution,  a  New  Civiliza- 
tion —  Reforms  Already  Accomplished  —  Patriotism  of  Preda- 
tory Wealth  —  Good  Government  Ideals  —  Administration  of 
Hiram  Johnson  —  Progressive  Movement  at  Los  Angeles  — 
A  New  Reign  of  Law  and  Justice. 

CHAPTER  XXVI 
GLORIA  IN  EXCELSIS 

Decadence  of  the  Republic  —  Base  Admixtures  of  Population  — 
Standards  of  Citizenship  —  Vital  Measures  of  Reform  —  Prog- 
ress Made  Permanent  —  Untenable  Attitude  of  the  Judiciary  — 
Corruption  of  the  Appellate  Courts  —  Referendum  and  Recall  — 
Marvelous  Progress. 

CHAPTER  XXVII 
SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  PANAMA  CANAL 

The  Isthmus  in  the  Olden  Time  —  New  Channel  of  World's  Com- 
merce —  What  the  Canal  Will  Accomplish  —  Early  Efforts  to 
Penetrate  the  Continent  —  Mythical  Waterways  —  Various 
Routes  Considered  —  Explorations  and  Surveys  —  France  and 
the  United  States. 


RETROSPECTION 


RETROSPECTION 

POLITICAL  AND  PERSONAL 

CHAPTER   I 

EXPANSION  AND  EMPIRE 

WERE  we  as  ready  as  were  our  forefathers  to  see  the 
hand  of  Providence  in  the  affairs  of  men,  some 
things  might  be  accounted  for  which  now  must  await 
further  accession  of  wisdom.  In  our  ignorance  we  might 
ask,  for  example,  what  possible  connection  could  there  be 
between  a  Yankee  fur-trader  on  the  Northwest  Coast  of 
America  in  the  year  1792,  the  federal  congress  at  Philadel- 
phia, and  a  Corsican  adventurer  seeking  advancement  in 
the  streets  of  Paris.  Or,  again,  what  could  black  cannibals 
in  the  jungles  of  Africa,  or  whilom  importations  thence 
in  Georgia  and  Alabama,  or  the  visit  of  a  future  president 
to  Florida  have  to  do  with  the  late  possessions  of  the 
king  of  Spain,  or  in  establishing  the  southern  limits  and 
frontage  on  the  Pacific  of  an  Anglo-Saxon  commonwealth 
in  the  wilds  of  America.  And  yet,  enlightened  by  wisdom 
from  on  high,  one  might  answer,  It  is  the  Invisible  Archi- 
tect of  the  Republic,  his  finger  pointing  out  where  the 
corner  stones  shall  be  laid,  corners  so  wide  apart,  so  utterly 
at  variance,  that  only  the  eye  of  omniscience  may  trace 
the  lines  of  their  connection. 

For  at  the  very  moment  that  Robert  Gray  of  Boston 

1 


2  RETROSPECTION 

entered  the  mouth  of  the  River  of  the  West,  giving  the 
name  of  his  good  ship  Columbia  to  that  stream,  on  the 
Atlantic  side  the  soldiers  of  the  Revolution  were  clearing 
away  the  debris  after  the  battle  and  returning  to  their 
farms  and  merchandise,  while  statesmen  were  fashioning 
forms  of  government  to  meet  the  requirements  of  a  new 
nation. 

By  virtue  of  the  presence  of  Jacques  Cartier  in  the 
Saint  Lawrence  in  1534,  and  of  the  Chevalier  de  la  Salle 
on  the  Mississippi  in  1681,  the  king  of  France  held  Canada 
and  the  interior  of  the  continent  from  the  great  lakes  to 
the  Mexican  gulf,  and  from  the  Alleghanies  to  the  Rocky 
mountains.  The  treaty  of  Paris  in  1763,  following  the  fall 
of  Quebec,  transferred  to  England  the  midcontinent  French 
possessions  east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  to  the  thirteen 
English  colonies  bordering  on  the  Atlantic  was  added  this 
newly  acquired  French  domain,  the  whole  constituting 
the  area  of  the  United  States  in  1787  as  won  from  England 
by  the  war  of  Independence. 

Claims  had  been  preferred  by  the  several  colonies  each 
to  a  strip  beyond  the  Appalachian  range  equal  in  width  to 
its  frontage  on  the  ocean,  which  claims  were  ceded  to  the 
federal  government. 

Turning  to  the  Pacific,,  we  find  thus  early  agencies  at 
work  in  the  Oregon  country.  Though  fortuitous  it  is  none 
the  less  gratifying  that  this  unsurveyed  angle  should  have 
been  so  accurately  placed  by  these  instruments  of  destiny 
— men  all  unconscious  of  the  potential  significance  of  their 
acts — that  the  unimaginary  lines  should  have  been  so 
accurately  drawn  along  the  same  parallels  of  latitude  as  to 
place  their  possessions  on  the  Pacific  exactly  opposite  their 
home  on  the  Atlantic. 

The  shipping  interests  of  the  colonies  had  enlarged 
during  the  period  of  dependency  until  their  vessels  were 
seen  in  all  ports  of  every  sea.  Many  voyages  since  Drake's 
visit  to  California  in  1579  had  been  made  to  the  coast, 
voyages  of  discovery  and  trade,  notably  by  Spanish, 


EXPANSION   AND    EMPIRE  3 

English,  and  American  navigators,  each  of  whom  set  up 
rights  of  possession. 

The  coastwise  fur-trade  offered  attractions  equal  to 
those  of  the  forest,  and  the  Northwest  was  a  prolific  field. 
Routine  was  in  this  wise:  New  England  ships  exchanged 
their  cargo  of  Yankee  trinkets  and  more  substantial  Indian 
goods  for  the  rich  peltries  of  the  natives,  then  sailed  away 
for  China,  where  the  furs  were  sold,  teas  and  silks  taking 
their  place.  A  successful  voyage  of  two  or  three  years 
was  very  profitable,  the  return  cargo  selling  at  three  to 
five  times  the  original  cost. 

Captain  Gray  was  the  first  New  Englander  to  adven- 
ture a  voyage  round  the  world,  and  it  was  on  that  occasion, 
while  exploiting  the  coast  southward  from  Juan  de  Fuca 
strait,  that  he  came  to  the  great  river. 

A  score  of  times  the  place  had  been  passed  by  famous 
navigators,  but  the  noble  stream  had  withheld  its  secret 
until  it  should  be  found  by  an  American  mariner  to  be 
given  to  his  country. 

Not  without  controversy,  however,  for  never  were  there 
lands  so  far  away  or  undeveloped  that  men  could  not  be 
found  to  fight  over  them. 

After  all  other  claimants  had  been  eliminated  by  the 
Nootka  convention  and  other  conferences,  Russia  mean- 
while having  relinquished  her  rights  to  all  lands  below 
latitude  54°  40',  and  Spain  having  included  whatever  pre- 
tensions she  may  have  had  to  the  Oregon  country  in  her 
sale  of  Florida  to  the  United  States  in  1819,  there  remained 
as  parties  in  the  dispute  England  and  the  United  States 
only.  The  territory  in  question  lay  between  latitudes  42°, 
the  northern  boundary  of  California,  and  54°  40',  the  south- 
ern limit  of  Alaska. 

Each  side  claimed  the  whole — a  truly  diplomatic  open- 
ing to  a  discussion  which  was  to  last  for  half  a  century 
and  become  famous  in  history  as  the  Oregon  question. 

The   United   States   cited   the   New   England   trading 


vessels  on  the  Northwest  Coast  since  1784;  the  discovery 
and  naming  of  the  Columbia  river  by  Robert  Gray  in  1792 ; 
the  government  expedition  of  Lewis  and  Clarke  in  1805; 
the  appearance  of  the  Astor  parties  and  erection  of  Fort 
Astoria  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  in  1811;  Williams, 
Henry,  and  Winship  in  the  mountains  and  on  the  Columbia ; 
American  missionaries  on  the  Willamette,  and  free 
trappers  and  traders  elsewhere. 

England  brought  forward  the  navigations  of  Vancou- 
ver and  others  along  the  coast;  the  adventures  of  David 
Thompson  in  New  Caledonia;  the  coming  of  Alexander 
Mackenzie  to  Bentinck  North  Arm,  and  the  doings  of  John 
Stuart  and  Simon  Fraser  at  Stuart  lake  and  on  Fraser 
river.  Then  throughout  the  northern  interior  were  the 
British  fur-forts  of  the  English  Hudson  Bay  company  and 
the  Scotch  Northwest  company,  with  baronial  halls  at  forts 
Victoria  and  Vancouver,  ruled  in  state  by  the  chief  factors 
Sir  James  Douglas  and  John  McLoughlin  respectively, 
who  bowed  forth  to  dinner  their  Indian  wives  with  all 
the  form  and  circumstance  due  to  princesses  of  the 
blood. 

The  British  apparently  getting  the  best  of  it,  our  pug- 
nacious patriots  sent  forth  their  loudest  argument  in  the 
war  cry  of  "Fifty-four-forty  or  fight." 

Doubtless  some  who  thus  shouted  understood  it,  if  not 
the  ''fifty-four-forty/'  at  least  the  "fight."  The  question 
came  up  in  a  cabinet  meeting  in  1845.  President  Polk 
favored  the  popular  demand,  insisting  upon  the  entire 
territory  for  the  United  States,  but  Buchanan,  with  more 
regard  for  the  rights  of  others,  was  satisfied  to  divide  the 
land  at  latitude  49°. 

Had  our  belligerent  progenitors  won  their  way  we 
should  now  have  a  continuous  coast  line  on  the  Pacific 
side  of  four  thousand  miles;  as  it  is  the  break  is  but  five 
hundred  miles,  or  thereabout,  in  length. 

In  1803  was  effected  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  by 


EXPANSION   AND   EMPIRE  5 

which  term  was  then  known  all  that  region  lying  west  of 
the  Mississippi  to  the  borders  of  the  Spanish  possessions 
and  the  Oregon  territory.  It  came  fortuitously,  like  most 
of  the  additions  to  our  domain,  and  nearly  doubled  the 
original  area  of  the  United  States. 

It  happened  in  this  way.  The  island  of  New  Orleans 
in  foreign  hands  had  proved  an  obstruction  to  American 
commerce,  and  James  Monroe  was  sent  to  Paris  commis- 
sioned to  buy  it.  He  had  no  thought  of  purchasing  half  a 
continent,  but  only  a  small  lot  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Mississippi. 

It  appears  that  the  Corsican  wanted  money.  European 
rulers  generally  want  money.  When  informed  of  Mr. 
Monroe's  errand  Napoleon  saw  that  so  small  a  transaction, 
if  consummated,  would  not  greatly  help  him.  So  he  said 
to  his  agent,  Marbois,  "I  need  money  in  France  more  than 
wild  lands  in  America;  get  me  fifty  or  a  hundred  million 
francs  and  let  it  all  go. ' ' 

The  price  finally  agreed  upon  was  fifteen  million  dol- 
lars. But  alas!  the  pity  of  it  for  the  Yankee  bargain- 
maker,  when  it  might  have  been  had  for  ten  millions,  even 
though  at  the  price  at  which  stolen  lands  were  then  selling 
it  would  have  been  cheap  at  thirty  millions. 

Two  army  officers,  Lewis  and  Clarke,  were  detailed  to 
examine  the  new  purchase  and  report. 

They  ascended  the  Missouri  to  its  source,  found  there- 
about the  head-waters  of  the  Columbia,  and  followed  that 
stream  to  its  mouth. 

Andrew  Jackson  entered  Florida  at  the  head  of  an 
expedition  in  1816.  Regardless  of  instructions  he  seized 
Spanish  forts,  hanged  white  men  without  a  trial,  slew  Sem- 
inoles  without  quarter,  and  swore  by  the  Eternal.  For 
which  piratical  proceedings  he  was  hailed  a  hero  and  twice 
made  president,  Spain  meanwhile  being  glad  to  get  five 
millions  for  the  country  and  throw  in  Oregon. 

Texas,  after  gaining  independence  from  Mexico,  joined 


6  KETROSPECTION 

the  United  States  confederacy  in  1845,  the  last  to  be 
received  into  the  union  as  a  slave  state. 

After  an  inglorious  war  with  Mexico  in  1848,  fifteen 
million  dollars  was  given  for  the  upper  California  country, 
and  ten  millions  in  1853  for  the  Gadsden  strip,  which 
brought  the  Pacific  coast  line  down  to  San  Diego,  and 
included  the  region  contiguous  to  California  back  to  the 
Rio  Grande,  thus  rounding  ort  the  Republic  proper  as  it 
stands  to-day. 

Alaska  was  purchased  from  Russia  in  1867  for  seven 
millions,  or  a  little  more;  the  Hawaiian  islands  applied  for 
and  received  admission  in  1898 ;  Wake  island  was  acquired 
the  same  year;  part  of  the  Samoa  islands  in  1900;  Porto 
Rico  and  the  Philippines  in  1899;  and  the  Panama  canal 
zone  in  1904. 

Thus  fell  into  place  as  a  compact  whole  the  several 
parts  of  our  commonwealth,  from  which  category  we  may 
if  we  choose  exclude  our  Panama  possession  which  was 
obtained  for  a  purpose — as  a  place  it  may  be  for  display- 
ing before  the  world  a  specimen  of  American  art  or 
artifice. 

It  came  to  pass  as  the  century  neared  its  end  that 
reflective  minds  at  Washington  began  to  consider  the 
exposed  position  of  our  Pacific  possessions  as  illustrated 
by  the  late  civil  war;  also  the  ever-increasing  arrogance 
and  the  ever-decreasing  honesty  of  the  railway  magnates 
who  usurped  the  government,  and  the  advantages  which 
would  accrue  from  an  interoceanic  waterway. 

Unfortunately  Spain  was  four  hundred  years  before  us 
in  securing  all  the  isthmuses.  For  four  hundred  years 
there  had  been  talk  of  utilizing  some  one  of  them  as  a  site 
for  a  canal,  and  but  for  Theodore  Roosevelt  and  John  Hay 
the  talk  might  have  continued  for  another  four  hundred 
years.  Some  day  our  successors  will  clear  away  where 
the  sources  of  three  great  rivers  so  conveniently  placed  in 
juxtaposition  straddle  the  Rocky  mountains,  the  Missouri 


EXPANSION    AND    EMPIRE  7 

flowing  eastward,  the  Colorado  southward,  and  the  Colum- 
bia westward,  thence  to  dig  and  canalize  the  whole  country. 

The  first  choice  of  the  United  States  for  a  canal  site 
after  Panama  was  Nicaragua,  the  land-cut  there  being 
less,  and  the  ocean  travel  between  our  eastern  and  western 
shores  less  by  a  thousand  miles.  The  French  were  at 
Panama  though  they  had  made  overtures  to  sell. 

Nicaragua  was  exceedingly  solicitous;  so  further  sur- 
veys were  made  and  the  cost  estimated.  The  men  of 
Managua  understood  what  it  signified  to  their  little  effer- 
vescent republic — isolation  ended,  the  world  brought  to 
their  door,  employment  for  all  their  people,  a  market  for 
all  their  products,  and  perpetual  peace  assured  under  the 
safeguard  of  a  powerful  neighbor. 

So  the  bargain  was  struck ;  Nicaragua  was  to  receive  ten 
million  dollars  for  such  rights  and  privileges  as  were 
necessary  for  the  purpose.  The  people  of  the  lakes  were 
full  of  joy. 

But  how  now  ?  Why  do  the  men  of  Nicaragua  pause ; 
why  do  they  whisper  and  look  wise?  Evidently  a  thought 
has  struck  them.  There  is  yet  time,  they  say.  The  Wash- 
ington people  are  rich.  Having  gone  so  far  they  surely 
will  not  withdraw  for  the  matter  of  another  ten  millions. 
Ten  for  us  and  ten  for  the  country;  that  were  well.  Or 
stay,  twenty  for  us  and  the  canal  for  our  country;  that 
•were  better.  A  little  diplomacy  and  the  coup  were  ac- 
complished— Spanish  diplomacy,  Sagasta  would  say,  wit 
and  wisdom,  seasoned  or  stale,  whatever  it  might  be 
Yankeedom  had  no  use  for  it. 

Loud  were  the  lamentations  of  the  Nicaraguans  when 
they  learned  of  their  loss,  and  loud  the  acclaim  of  Colombia 
on  the  approach  of  the  worshipful  ten  millions.  Washing- 
ton refused  Managua's  appeal  for  a  reconsideration,  and 
Bogota  promised  for  the  ten  millions  to  grant  all  that  was 
required,  while  the  Frenchmen  would  be  glad  to  take 
forty  millions  for  their  failure. 

The  negotiators  for  this  right  of  way  were  learning 


8  RETROSPECTION 

fast,  if  indeed  they  did  not  know  it  before,  that  Spanish- 
Americans  are  not  conspicuous  for  truth  and  reliability  in 
their  dealings,  whether  at  Managua  or  Bogota,  for  after 
meeting  the  offer  of  Colombia  promptly  and  fairly  they 
found  themselves  subject  to  the  same  backing  and  filling 
process  which  had  so  disgusted  them  at  Managua. 

For  here  were  the  same  race,  the  same  undisciplined 
cupidity,  the  same  business  methods,  unstable,  unreliable, 
vapid,  vain.  As  at  Managua,  so  argued  among  themselves 
the  men  of  Bogota.  Ten  millions  and  the  grand  canal 
were  good.  Twenty  millions  and  the  grand  canal  were 
better,  and  that  sum  divided  among  the  Statesmen  of 
Bogota  would  be  quite  a  windfall. 

Turning  their  back  once  more  upon  such  ill-advised 
dealings  the  Washington  authorities  approached  the  people 
of  Panama  and  said,  ''You  are  a  sovereign  state  and  no 
part  of  a  confederacy.  You  were  forced  into  this  Colom- 
bian association  by  reason  of  your  exposed  position  and 
lack  of  resisting  force.  Declare  your  independence,  as  is 
your  right ;  accept  this  peripatetic  ten  millions  of  ours  and 
grant  us  what  we  require  for  our  work.  We  will  defend 
you  from  the  United  States  of  Colombia,  and  cause  your 
recognition  as  an  independent  state  by  the  powers  of 
Europe." 

And  so  it  was  done.  There  were  futile  ravings  at 
Bogota  as  there  had  been  at  Managua,  and  threats  of  war 
and  dire  destruction,  and  pleadings  withal  that  the  good 
Washington  gentlemen  would  reconsider,  would  let  Pan- 
ama alone  and  give  Colombia  the  ten  millions  as  before 
contemplated.  But  all  in  vain.  Colombia  was  powerless, 
and  the  United  States  was  well  pleased  to  be  rid  of  so  fickle 
and  untrustworthy  a  coadjutor  in  the  great  enterprise. 
Not  that  the  Panama  people  were  of  different  stamp,  but 
they  were  near  at  hand  and  could  be  better  managed. 

"I  hope  in  all  this,"  said  Senator  Hoar,  "that  there  is 
nothing  dishonorable."  And  President  Roosevelt  replied 
''There  is  nothing  dishonorable." 


EXPANSION   AND    EMPIRE  9 

Thereupon  our  people  dug  in  peace,  and  with  far  less 
sickness  than  had  been  anticipated,  owing  to  the  superior 
hygienic  conditions  established. 

The  French  spent  $250,000,000  on  a  sea-level  canal  72 
feet  wide  and  29  feet  deep,  and  failed  owing  to  the  imprac- 
ticability of  the  sea-level  plan,  their  extravagant  and  waste- 
ful methods,  the  Panama  fever,  and  inadequate  control  of 
the  canal  zone.  Our  canal  is  300  feet  wide  and  41  feet 
deep ;  the  cost  is  about  $400,000,000.  It  is  50  miles  long, 
from  a  point  five  miles  out  in  Limon  bay  on  the  Atlantic 
side  to  a  point  five  miles  out  on  the  Pacific  side.  From 
the  point  on  the  north — on  the  Atlantic  side,  in  the  sea,  five 
miles  out — there  is  a  channel,  protected  by  a  breakwater 
500  feet  wide,  that  runs  eight  miles — five  miles  in  the  sea 
and  three  miles  in  the  Gatun  dam. 

The  Gatun  dam  is  7,700  feet  long,  115  feet  high,  its 
supports  half  a  mile  thick  at  the  bottom,  400  feet  thick  at 
the  water's  edge,  which  is  85  feet  above  the  bottom,  and 
rises  to  a  height  of  115  feet,  with  a  width  of  100  feet  at 
the  top.  That  incloses  a  lake  135  square  miles  in  surface, 
and  furnishes  a  channel  1,000  feet  wide  for  sixteen  miles, 
800  feet  wide  for  four  miles,  500  feet  for  four  miles  and 
until  it  reaches  the  Culebra  cut. 

The  Culebra  cut  is  nine  miles  long  and  the  canal  has 
a  depth  across  the  bottom  through  it  of  300  feet.  The 
canal  is  forty-five  feet  deep  through  the  lake. 

The  vessel  making  this  passage  is  raised  by  three  steps 
of  28%  feet  each — three  double  sets  of  locks.  It  is 
raised  to  the  level  of  the  lake  85  feet,  and  continues  on 
that  level  until  it  reaches  the  end  of  the  Culebra  cut  at 
Pedro  Miguel,  where  it  is  lowered  again  30  feet  to  a  small 
lake  through  which  there  is  a  mile  and  a  half  of  a  channel 
500  feet  wide.  Then  at  Miraflores  it  is  lowered  again  two 
steps  of  28%  feet  into  a  channel  500  feet  wide  that  goes  out 
into  the  Pacific  ocean  five  miles.  It  will  take  three  hours 
for  a  vessel  to  go  up  and  down  the  steps  and  ten  to  twelve 
hours  to  go  through  the  canal. 


10  RETROSPECTION 

An  achievement  when  completed  to  be  regarded  with 
pride  and  wonder,  pride  that  we  had  been  enabled  so 
cleverly  to  assist  nature,  and  wonder  if  Harriman  were 
alive  how  long  it  would  be  before  he  had  it  in  his  pocket. 

To  the  average  American  mind  this  rapid  expansion 
of  domain,  trebling  itself  in  half  a  century,  was  somewhat 
bewildering.  In  leaving  their  European  homes  to  escape 
the  tyrannies  of  despotism  or  the  persecution  of  fanaticism ; 
in  becoming  colonists,  strangers  in  a  strange  land  yet  sub- 
jects of  the  ancient  rule;  in  breaking  off  their  fetters 
only  to  fetter  others,  the  curse  of  Adam  following  them  to 
the  New  World;  in  achieving  independence,  in  spreading 
themselves  out  though  as  yet  only  theoretically  over  vast 
areas,  even  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  there  had  been 
no  ambitious  thought  regarding  rulership  other  than  to 
rule  themselves  wisely  and  in  a  God-fearing  manner;  no 
thought  of  dominion  over  others,  of  protectorates,  or  depen- 
dencies, or  subservient  states;  no  thought  of  empire  or 
imperialism  if  indeed  such  words  had  any  significance  with 
them. 

The  true  American  people  do  not  and  never  did  covet 
their  neighbors'  lands,  that  is  to  say  further  than  such  as 
they  could  take  from  the  natives.  Early  statesmen  on  the 
floor  of  congress  "thanked  God  for  the  Rocky  mountain 
barrier  which  placed  a  limit  to  man's  ambition."  We  do 
not  want  Canada  or  Mexico.  As  slavery  is  a  thing  of  the 
past  no  more  territory  is  demanded  by  the  south  for  slave- 
holding  purposes.  There  are  always  at  hand  political 
filibusters  ready  for  any  action  that  will  bring  to  them 
personal  advantage.  There  may  have  been  men  high  in 
office  whose  ardent  imaginations  were  fired  by  thoughts  of 
universal  rule,  as  vast  acquisitions  were  added  to  an  already 
widely  extended  domain,  but  these  were  not  the  American 
people. 

By  yet  others,  then  as  now,  the  cry  of  imperialism,  or 
its  equivalent  was  raised  and  reiterated  upon  every  fresh 


EXPANSION   AND    EMPIRE  11 

acquisition,  for  opinion  has  been  and  is  divided  as  to  the 
wisdom  of  expansion,  though  where  proper  republicanism 
ends  and  improper  imperialism  begins  it  would  be  difficult 
for  any  one  of  them  to  say. 

An  anti-imperialist  league  was  organized  in  Boston  which 
manifested  a  lack  of  confidence  in  President  Taft,  and  in 
his  Philippine  policy.  They  seemed  to  suspect  the  govern- 
ment of  sinister  designs  in  regard  to  the  islands ;  although 
acting  at  present  in  apparent  good  faith,  and  notwith- 
standing the  prompt  fulfillment  of  our  promise  with  regard 
to  Cuba,  they  feared  that  politicians  and  capitalists  were 
so  shaping  the  laws  and  absorbing  the  natural  wealth  of 
the  Philippine  country  as  to  render  rehabilitation  at  any 
time  impracticable.  And  this,  although  the  people  of  the 
United  States  are  opposed  to  what  they  call  imperialism. 

They  claimed  that  the  Filipinos  had  already  demon- 
strated their  capacity  for  self-government  by  organizing 
political  parties,  legislative  assemblies,  appointing  officials, 
and  employing  all  the  paraphernalia  of  popular  govern- 
ment. They  deprecated  the  disposal  of  lands  and  the 
introduction,  under  the  Taft  policy,  of  foreign  capital, 
which  acts  as  a  menace  rather  than  as  a  benefit.  Their 
arguments  from  false  premises  were  otherwise  somewhat 
strained,  as  the  fact  remains  that  in  the  midst  of  internal 
jealousy  and  external  rapacity  the  native  islanders  are  in 
no  condition  to  exercise  successful  self-rule.  And  there 
is  no  reason  after  our  Cuban  benefactions  for  distrusting 
the  American  people. 

What  evidence  the  Filipinos  have  given  of  their  ca- 
pacity for  self-government  it  would  be  difficult  to  say.  By 
far  the  greater  part  of  them  are  but  little  better  than 
savages,  knowing  no  civilized  people,  speaking  no  civil- 
ized language,  and  thinking  no  civilized  thoughts.  They 
are  far  behind  the  Cubans  in  intelligence  and  education, 
yet  the  Cubans  made  a  failure  of  their  first  attempt  at 
self-government. 

What  would  they,  these  good  people  of  Boston  ?     Would 


12  RETROSPECTION 

they  have  had  us  leave  Spain  alone,  leave  alone  Weyler, 
"the  wickedest  man  on  earth,"  to  grind  the  Cubans  into 
the  dust,  to  tear  them  from  their  homes,  gather  them  into 
droves  and  herd  them  in  city  suburbs  to  die  of  starvation 
and  disease,  all  of  them  whom  he  had  not  already  shot  or 
imprisoned  ?  Would  they  see  the  dogs  in  their  streets  thus 
treated  and  not  put  forth  a  restraining  hand?  Was  it  a 
coterie  of  sentimentalists  who  thus  felt  for  the  Cubans,  or 
was  it  a  protest  from  the  great  heart  of  humanity  that 
compelled  President  McKinley  to  put  an  end  to  the 
iniquity  after  he  had  repeatedly  begged  Congress  for  a 
little  more  time  in  which  if  possible  to  avert  war  ? 

Compelled  at  last  to  act,  not  by  party  politicians  or  any 
special  interests  but  by  the  noble  impulses  of  the  American 
people,  he  played  the  part  of  a  true  soldier  and  acted  with 
promptness  and  vigor.  And  the  fateful  words  once  wired 
to  Admiral  Dewey,  "Capture  or  destroy  the  Spanish 
fleet,"  where  has  there  been  a  stopping-place  from  that 
day  to  this  ?  When  has  there  been  a  time  that  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  could  honorably  say  "Here  we 
will  rest;"  when  it  could  with  decency  say  to  the  half  or 
wholly  savage  Filipinos,  "Now  look  out  for  yourselves," 
leaving  them  to  anarchy  at  home  and  the  prey  of  designing 
nations  ? 

True,  when  Dewey  had  sunk  the  Spanish  fleet  in  Manila 
bay  he  might  have  sailed  away  and  left  them,  his  orders 
obeyed,  his  task  accomplished.  Would  any  of  us  have  had 
it  so  ?  Would  not  the  Spaniards  there  have  pounced  upon 
the  defenceless  natives  with  greater  cruelties  than  ever, 
pluralizing  the  horrors  of  Cuba,  were  it  possible,  with  ten- 
fold intensity?  And  for  how  long  would  Japan  or  Ger- 
many have  withheld  their  rapacious  hands  ?  For  how  long 
would  the  hungry  nations  have  kept  a  promise  had  they 
made  one  ?  Being  a  man  and  an  American  Admiral  Dewey 
could  not  choose  but  land  and  plant  there  his  flag,  the  flag 
of  his  country,  which  pledged  himself  and  his  government 
to  protect  this  people  just  let  loose  from  tyranny,  to 


EXPANSION   AND    EMPIRE  13 

protect  them  from  themselves  and  others.  And  since  then 
I  fail  to  see  any  time  when  this  government  could  have 
honorably  receded  from  that  position. 

And  after  the  conduct  of  the  United  States  in  thus 
liberating  one  downtrodden  people  and  protecting  another, 
in  fulfilling  to  the  uttermost  all  promises  of  fair  treatment 
and  faithful  restoration,  who  shall  doubt  the  integrity  of 
this  nation  in  its  future  dealings  with  a  weaker  race?  Not 
our  own  people  surely,  but  perhaps  the  sage  Sagasta  may, 
he  who  with  broad  sarcasm  remarked,  "It  will,  indeed,  be 
long  before  the  Cubans  are  capable  of  self-government  if 
the  United  States  waits  for  that  time  before  giving  them 
their  freedom. ' '  The  magnanimity  displayed  by  President 
McKinley  and  his  coadjutors  in  regard  to  this  and  other 
measures  attending  the  Spanish  war  was  utterly  beyond 
the  comprehension  of  a  Spanish  minister  of  state. 

And  this  is  called  imperialism,  and  lamented  as  such, 
this  putting  forth  a  hand  to  stop  the  savage  brutalities 
committed  at  our  door  by  the  dilapidated  monarchy  of  an 
effete  civilization! 

The  star  of  empire  leading  westward ;  the  star  of  empire 
which  we  have  followed  from  Holland,  from  England, 
across  the  continent,  across  the  Pacific  sinks  now  as  we 
approach  the  threshold  of  the  ancient  East,  while  we  find 
ourselves  still  holding  fast  to  our  traditions. 

Many  of  our  people  were  fearful  from  the  first  of  the 
results  of  territorial  expansion ;  fearful  of  shoals  and  ship- 
wreck; bewildered  by  what  seemed  to  them  a  limitless 
expanse  of  land  with  its  responsibilities.  Jefferson  was 
roundly  rated  for  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  as  was  Seward 
for  buying  Alaska. 

Said  one  senator,  "If  we  want  to  give  Russia  seven 
millions  why  give  it,  and  let  her  keep  her  frozen  mountains, 
icebergs,  and  glaciers  which  we  can  neither  sell,  lose,  nor 
give  away." 

Mr.  McKinley  was  blamed  for  permitting  the  Philip- 


14  RETROSPECTION 

pines  to  fall  on  his  shoulders.  But  his  intentions  and 
policy  and  promises  were  sound  and  will  be  fulfilled. 

No  fault  was  found  by  the  recipients  when  England 
gave  to  her  seaboard  colonies  better  land  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies.  But  for  expansion,  which  some  say  leads  to  im- 
perialism, the  original  area  would  to-day  mark  our  limits, 
with  Florida  and  the  trans-Mississippi  region  in  the  hands 
of  foreign  powers,  of  Spain,  France,  or  England,  who  were 
wont  to  trade  in  American  lands  as  boys  swap  jack-knives. 
But  when  our  presidents  and  their  secretaries  began 
acting  upon  their  own  judgment  then  criticism  arose.  Dis- 
cussion upon  the  floor  of  Congress  became  aggressive. 
"Large  territory  is  not  consistent  with  the  spirit  of  repub- 
licanism," said  one.  "To  advance  the  west  is  to  retard  the 
east,"  broke  forth  another.  "To  make  states  of  Louisiana 
territory  would  be  a  curse  to  us."  "Purchase  Alaska?  We 
shall  be  buying  ice-fields  in  Greenland  next!" 

Still  we  will  say  in  the  face  of  so  much  mistaken  wis- 
dom that  the  Philippine  islands,  though  for  the  time  a 
solemn  obligation,  are  an  unwelcome  encumbrance,  fit  only 
as  a  refuge  for  broken-down  politicians,  and  now  and  then 
a  little  gun  practice.  Our  position  in  the  Orient  is  safe 
enough  without  them.  Porto  Rico  is  no  ornament,  but  an 
appendage  easily  dispensed  with.  With  regard  to  the 
Hawaiian  islands,  it  is  different.  They  are  the  natural 
outpost  of  our  coast,  and  would  be  a  standing  menace  in 
the  hands  of  a  foreign  power. 

A  German  colonel  scents  imperialistic  tendencies  in  the 
fortification  of  the  Panama  canal,  which  nevertheless  he 
thinks  should  be  done.  Doubtless  from  a  feudalistic  view- 
point he  is  correct.  If  it  is  necessary  as  under  the  ancient 
regime  for  a  nation  to  fence  around  with  forts  every  piece 
of  its  outlying  possessions,  then  let  the  canal  zone  be  forti- 
fied, even  though  civilization  is  supposed  to  have  reached 
the  point  where  a  valid  compact  could  be  made  between 
the  nations  that  this  property,  important  in  its  use  to  all, 
should  remain  unmolested  in  war  as  in  peace,  or  even  though 


EXPANSION   AND    EMPIRE  15 

a  flock  of  air-ships  might  in  a  single  hour  drop  bombs 
sufficient  to  blow  it  all,  forts  and  waterways,  to  destruc- 
tion. Farther  than  this,  until  the  efficiency  of  these  new 
birds  of  prey  is  tested,  it  seems  unwise  to  build  forts  or 
warships  at  all. 

Amidst  the  universal  discussion  of  this  subject  Mr. 
Ralph  Lane  has  sent  forth  a  book,  which  has  attracted  some 
attention,  on  the  abolition  of  war,  upon  the  plea  that  all 
war  is  futile,  in  that  it  is  unprofitable  alike  to  victor  and 
vanquished.  This  upon  the  assumption  that  money,  lands, 
or  dominions  are  the  only  things  nations  fight  for.  He  is 
correct  in  regard  to  some  wars,  those  waged  for  personal 
or  political  aggrandizement,  such  as  have  been  most  com- 
mon in  Europe  for  example;  but  wars  for  principle  or  for 
some  vital  policy  have  two  sides,  and  it  is  profitable  to  the 
right  side  if  it  wins. 

In  every  one  of  its  wars,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
the  war  of  1812,  the  United  States  has  been  successful ;  all 
were  just  and  honorable  save  one,  our  war  with  Mexico, 
but  which  was  nevertheless  profitable,  giving  us  the  Cali- 
fornia country,  the  garden  of  the  world. 

History  has  given  up  repeating  itself;  change  alone  is 
constant.  The  philosophy  of  history  consists  no  less  in 
understanding  the  present  and  considering  the  future  than 
in  reviewing  the  past.  That  which  was  impracticable  yes- 
terday may  be  desirable  tomorrow.  The  reasonable 
expenditures  of  the  rich  become  extravagance  when  in- 
dulged in  by  others.  It  is  no  more  for  the  United  States 
now  to  control  islands  in  the  Pacific,  or  dig  an  interoceanic 
waterway,  than  it  once  was  to  buy  Louisiana  and  Florida, 
make  an  Erie  canal,  or  construct  a  Cumberland  turnpike. 
We  can  no  more  be  justly  charged  with  imperial  republi- 
canism now  than  then. 

Nevertheless  should  any  one  find  comfort  in  calling  this 
federal  government  imperial  he  may  very  properly  do  so. 
Imperial  republicanism  ought  not  to  be  a  bad  sort;  ought 


16  RETROSPECTION 

to  be  a  little  cleaner  perhaps  than  a  government  by  rail- 
roads for  railroads. 

Rising  suddenly  to  eminence  on  a  breath  of  wind  blown 
by  this  petty  Spanish  war,  never  having  counted  our  wealth 
nor  considered  our  strength,  we  were  led  by  advanced  ideas 
into  certain  measures  over  which  the  timid  affect  fear, 
just  as  it  always  is  in  periods  of  rapid  progression. 

The  time  has  passed  when  any  nation  may  go  prowling 
about  the  world  conquering  or  appropriating  new  lands 
or  old,  and  establishing  dependencies  and  protectorates. 
Our  people  want  none  of  these,  but  with  a  voice  potential 
in  the  affairs  of  the  world,  with  opportunities  and  abilities 
for  the  betterment  of  mankind  such  as  were  never  before 
vouchsafed  to  any  nation  in  any  age,  with  the  inclination 
and  the  power  to  employ  mighty  agencies  for  good,  for  the 
moral  and  intellectual  advancement  of  the  world,  as  illus- 
trated under  the  regime  of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  we  ought 
not  to  be  frightened  from  our  high  privileges  by  the  stale 
cry  of  imperialism. 

In  imitation  of  the  ever-struggling  powers  of  Europe, 
in  their  vain  competition  each  to  outdo  the  others  in 
the  size  and  efficiency  of  their  war  vessels,  we  spend  our 
millions  yearly  in  the  construction  of  battle-ships  which  are 
obsolete  almost  before  they  are  finished;  whereupon  we 
hasten  to  build  one  larger,  and  yet  another  still  larger, 
which  scramblings  are  idiotic  enough  in  Europe  but  ten- 
fold more  so  in  America. 

Nor  should  there  be,  nor  is  there  any  necessity  for  stand- 
ing armies  and  competitive  war-ship  building  among  civi- 
lized nations,  as  though  all  were  fearful  of  an  attack  in  the 
dark,  as  from  savages,  or  of  sudden  assassination.  No 
unarmed  nation  is  likely  to  be  annihilated  before  it  can  get 
together  some  means  of  defense.  Or  if  concentrated  force 
is  necessary  to  maintain  the  peace  of  the  world,  let  the 
Hague  form  a  war  trust,  each  nation  contributing  as  to  a 
police  fund. 


EXPANSION   AND    EMPIRE  17 

The  old  adage  is  obsolete,  and  those  who  adopt  it  are 
obsolete,  in  time  of  peace  prepare  for  war.  Why  prepare 
for  war?  Why  not  prepare  for  peace?  Why  should  a 
nation  any  more  than  an  individual  go  strutting  about  the 
world  with  scowling  mien,  upturned  mustache,  a  pistol  in 
each  hand  and  a  chip  on  its  shoulder?  The  men  of  Nippon 
go  forth  to  die  for  their  country  with  less  bluster  than  the 
Germans,  and  we  respect  the  Germans  no  more  on  that 
account. 

Far  better  our  government  should  employ  itself  in  pro- 
tecting what  needs  protection.  I  need  not  say  that  without 
government  aid  our  commercial  supremacy  on  the  ocean 
will  be  lost;  it  is  already  lost.  From  ignorance  or  in- 
difference Congress  has  stood  quiescent  while  England  and 
Japan  have  possessed  themselves  of  the  world's  carrying 
trade.  In  our  kindness  we  even  cut  them  a  canal  across 
our  continent  to  facilitate  their  operations  against  us.  For 
what  can  we  want  such  a  waterway  when  we  have  no 
ships?  How  is  the  canal  to  benefit  our  Pacific  ports  if 
we  have  no  commerce,  and  how  can  we  have  commerce 
without  either  factories  or  carrying  vessels? 


CHAPTER  II 

UTOPIAN   DREAMS 

IT  was  an  age  of  altruistic  ideals,  though  it  had  not  yet 
occurred  to  the  apostles  for  the  betterment  of  the  race 
the  impossible  in  relation  to  disinterested  benevolence. 
The  disciples  of  John  Knox  and  Jonathan  Edwards  were 
taught  to  draw  satisfaction  from  the  doctrine  of  election, 
provided  they  were  of  the  elect.  It  was  bliss  for  the 
believer,  the  thought  of  sitting  in  heaven  and  complacently 
regarding  the  agonies  of  the  doomed  below,  and  so  long  as 
her  own  little  ones  were  safe  the  New  England  housewife 
still  might  blithely  sing  as  she  went  about  her  work,  though 
assured  by  her  spiritual  teacher  that  millions  of  innocents, 
born  of  other  mothers,  must  suffer  forever.  Here  as  else- 
where in  those  days,  in  its  many  diverse  and  oppugnant 
forms,  there  was  an  all-pervading  spirit  of  proselyting 
throughout  Christendom,  which  broke  out  occasionally  into 
fierce  spasms  of  regeneration. 

The  ethics  of  Jesus  come  to  us  in  words,  with  a  subcon- 
scious influence  to  the  refining  of  the  race;  all  the  same 
the  attendant  deeds  are  diabolical. 

Some  centuries  ago  had  been  promulgated  the  order  to 
go  forth  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every 
creature.  Obedience  to  which  mandate  led  the  sanctified 
into  strange  ways.  Saint  Peter  went  forth  to  preach,  and 
detecting  Ananias  in  a  very  little  lie  he  straightway  slew 
him,  and  poor  Sapphira  also,  forgetting  the  great  falsehood 
he  himself  had  so  lately  perpetrated,  receiving  therefor  no 
punishment  whatever. 

Pagan  Rome  preached  the  Christians  into  the  cata- 

18 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  19 

combs;  the  Christians  in  their  turn  preached  the  pagan 
world  into  dungeons  and  torture-chambers.  Persecution 
was  quick  to  become  an  aid  to  proselyting;  so  that  when 
the  tidings  of  peace  on  earth  good  will  to  men  reached  the 
New  World,  the  natives  found  the  words  of  salvation  trans- 
lated into  the  ethics  of  hell.  By  the  Spanish  convocation  these 
savages  were  endowed  with  souls,  primarily  to  give  occu- 
pation to  the  church,  and  secondarily  to  give  mistresses  to 
the  conquerors,  for  without  a  soul  no  heathen  maid  might 
become  Christian  wife  or  concubine. 

Passing  the  millions  slaughtered  for  Christ's  sake  be- 
fore the  work  of  enforcing  conversion  in  America  began; 
passing  the  autos-da-fe  and  torture-chambers  of  Tor- 
quemada,  the  treacheries  practiced  upon  her  Moors  and 
the  burning  of  Jews  by  good  Queen  Isabella  in  her  ardent 
zeal  for  her  religion;  passing  also  the  trail  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion in  Mexico  and  Peru,  and  the  extermination  of  idola- 
trous innocents,  and  coming  to  our  own  country,  what  sort 
of  altruism  do  we  find  here,  what  way  of  preaching  the 
gospel  to  every  creature? 

John  Calvin  was  present,  in  spirit  if  not  in  person, 
making  people  happy  after  the  manner  of  his  brother  Knox, 
in  the  assurance  of  refuge  for  himself  and  followers  in  the 
convenient  folds  of  predestination,  with  the  flames  of  eter- 
nal fire  for  all  others. 

England  had  her  way  of  proselyting,  as  in  India  and 
Africa,  as  in  the  American  slave  shipments  and  the  Chinese 
opium  trade.  The  Puritans  of  Massachusetts,  themselves 
having  just  fled  from  persecution,  found  solace  in  perse- 
cuting others ;  they  preached  to  the  witch-women  of  Salem 
by  hanging  them,  and  to  the  Quakers  of  Boston  by  abus- 
ing them.  The  planters  of  the  south  preached  to  the  Afri- 
cans by  the  lash  of  their  slave-drivers,  while  clearing  the 
natives  from  fresh  lands  to  take  the  place  of  their  worn- 
out  tobacco  fields. 

It  is  a  great  comfort  among  the  leaders  of  pure  benevo- 


20  RETROSPECTION 

lence  to  possess  the  power  to  compel  people  to  do  right  and 
come  within  the  fold  whether  they  will  or  not.  Yet  there 
was  a  world  of  kindness  in  the  hearts  of  our  forefathers, 
in  the  hearts  of  the  stern  old  Puritans,  who  sought  only  to 
serve  God  in  the  proper  way. 

True,  there  was  the  political  aspect  as  well,  the  ideals  of 
men  escaped  from  iron  bars,  minds  freed  from  circumscrip- 
tion and  bodies  delivered  from  the  stripes,  a  Utopian  de- 
mocracy based  on  freedom,  free  hands,  free  thought,  free 
lands,  an  obsession  of  freedom  even  though  in  slavery  to 
the  supernatural,  a  freedom  on  whose  heels  followed 
closely  interdictions  and  prohibitions. 

What  wonder  then  if  Utopian  visions  fired  the  imagina- 
tions of  these  ardent  adventurers?  Optimists  all,  with 
scattered  hundreds  of  dreamers  whose  unrevealed  impossi- 
bilities their  fervid  fancy  carried  into  nebulous  extremes. 

Here  was  a  world  unmarred  by  man  basking  in  pri- 
meval plenteousness ;  a  brand-new  continent  only  to  be 
swept  of  its  dusky  denizens  with  their  dreamy  awakenings, 
and  garnished  with  some  small  degree  of  the  divine  fire, 
to  be  fit  for  any  purpose;  a  virgin  land  of  limitless  extent 
and  surpassing  potentialities,  fresh  from  the  hand  of  the 
Creator;  a  garden  of  the  Hesperides,  a  new- world  Eden, 
inhabited  only  by  beings  whose  dim  subconscious  intelli- 
gence might  easily  be  crushed,  whose  subordination  Chris- 
tianity permitted  and  whose  removal  civilization  demanded. 
If  only  reason  might  join  hands  with  opportunity  what  a 
consummation  were  here!  The  preservation  of  nature's 
lands,  the  conservation  of  nature's  forces,  not  for  the 
present  alone,  but  for  all  time,  not  to  .multiply  the  debased 
but  to  elevate  the  capable  and  encourage  the  worthy,  not 
to  enrich  the  few  but  to  benefit  all. 

Here  were  natural  resources  such  as  would  enrich  a 
world,  and  if  properly  husbanded  give  to  each  inhabitant, 
now  and  forever,  all  the  requisites  of  life,  health,  and  happi- 
ness. Soil  and  climate,  sunshine  air  and  moving  waters, 
metals  in  the  mountains,  forests  on  the  hillsides,  valleys 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  21 

prolific  of  every  food,  and  underneath  the  surface  the  coal 
and  the  oil  and  all  the  vitalizing  forces  wherewith  to  forge 
fresh  happiness. 

Imagine  these  natural  advantages,  this  boundless 
wealth,  enough  for  all  time  and  all  people,  increasing  rather 
than  diminishing  if  guarded  and  managed  by  all  as  a  wise 
and  prudent  person  would  manage  his  individual  affairs; 
imagine  such  a  state  of  things,  no  impost  duties  or  taxes, 
no  standing  army  or  criminal  class  to  support,  no  ever- 
increasing  horde  of  pensioners,  the  necessary  labor  coming 
in  the  form  of  a  blessing  rather  than  a  curse;  imagine 
this,  and  behold  the  reality! 

Utopian  dreams!  Possible  and  practicable  in  so  far  as 
physical  conditions  were  concerned,  but  alas!  for  the  lack 
of  human  intelligence,  of  men  or  generations  of  men  to 
meet  the  occasion ;  a  consummation  not  to  be  expected  from 
an  undeveloped  race,  not  to  be  expected  until  a  new  flood 
obliterates  the  present  time  and  sends  forth  a  new  Noah 
whose  circumspection  and  behavior  shall  prove  better  than 
those  of  the  old  Noah. 

Such  was  this  fair  Altrurian  land  with  all  its  sublime 
potentialities.  Never  before  had  men  and  conditions  so 
met,  and  never  on  this  earth  can  they  so  meet  again.  But 
is  this  the  end?  By  no  means.  Life  is  a  running  conflict 
with  no  prospect  of  rest,  no  expectation  of  the  realization 
of  our  early  dreams  of  Elysian  fields,  or  even  of  our  old, 
long-lost  home  contentment.  Yet  hope  never  dies ;  or  if  it 
does  all  is  dead.  All  around  us  always  the  air  is  swarming 
with  Utopias,  fresh  ones  coming  on  as  the  old  ones  pass 
away. 

Thus  it  was  that  instead  of  the  one  dreamed-of  and 
all-glorious  Utopia  there  was  an  epidemic  of  Utopias  run- 
ning through  the  early  centuries  of  American  occupation, 
ignes  fatui  chasing  after  the  everlasting  good,  hunting  for 
happiness  in  the  wilderness,  a  straining  to  achieve  the  ulti- 
mate best  on  this  earth,  which  has  yet  by  no  mean*  ceased, 
2 


22  RETROSPECTION 

nor  ever  will  cease,  and  which  we  cannot  say  that  under 
any  circumstances  should  we  like  to  see  come  to  an  end. 

Let  us  look  at  some  of  them. 

What  better  place  than  Florida  where  might  be  flowing 
the  fountain  of  youth  which  Juan  Ponce  de  Leon  failed  in 
1512  to  find  in  Bimini  1 

And  on  the  Atlantic  side  of  the  Darien  isthmus,  not  far 
from  the  entrance  to  the  present  Panama  canal,  no  less  a 
personage  than  William  Patterson,  founder  of  the  Bank 
of  England,  undertook  to  establish  a  Scotch  Utopia  along 
industrial  lines.  His  intention  was  to  make  his  settlement 
the  entrepot  of  the  Pacific,  the  pivotal  point  of  the  com- 
mercial world,  where  merchandise  might  be  interchanged, 
and  cargoes  transferred,  and  whence  Europe  and  all  the 
Atlantic  and  Mediterranean  seaports  might  be  supplied 
with  the  products  of  North  and  South  America,  of  Japan, 
China,  and  the  South  sea  isles. 

' '  The  settlers  of  Darien, ' '  he  said,  ' '  will  acquire  a  nobler 
empire  than  Alexander  or  Caesar,  without  fatigue,  expense, 
or  danger." 

Nor  was  Patterson  the  first  to  dream  this  dream.  Vasco 
Nunez  thought  of  it,  and  Pizarro's  people,  as  their  treasure- 
laden  mule-trains  jingled  their  bells  along  the  trail  to 
Nombre  de  Dios.  The  Manila  merchants  thought  of  it  as 
their  annual  galleon  filled  to  the  hatchway  with  gold  and 
silver,  the  teas  and  silks  and  carved  ivory  of  the  Far  East 
anchored  off  Panama. 

All  this  is  nearer  realization  to-day,  for  in  Patterson's 
dream  were  no  American  canal-builders  to  take  up  the 
failure  of  the  French ;  no  United  States  canal  zone,  with  a 
city  at  either  end,  though  he  called  Acla  landing  New 
Saint  Andrew,  and  the  region  thereabout  New  Caledonia, 
where,  he  said,  might  be  profitably  grown  indigo,  sugar, 
tobacco,  and  all  the  tropical  plants. 

They  liked  Scotch  names,  those  Scotchmen,  and  besides 
that  the  Scotch  names  caught  Scotch  investors;  indeed, 
there  was  later  another  and  much  broader  New  Caledonia 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  23 

in  the  Oregon  country,  and  beyond,  whereof  the  Scotch 
fur-traders  might  dream  as  inhabited  by  good  Indians 
with  boiled  shirts  and  non-intoxicating  whiskey,  and  innu- 
merable bands  of  gentle  beasts  with  long  silky  fur  glad  to 
yield  their  skins  to  the  grand  dames  of  civilization. 

Patterson  was  the  son  of  a  Dumfriesshire  farmer,  and 
a  genius,  as  Cortes  and  Columbus  were  geniuses.  Besides 
achieving  the  bank  of  England  and  attempting  the  Darien 
Utopia,  he  roamed  for  a  time  about  the  West  Indies,  like 
Francis  Drake's  chaplain,  Fletcher,  as  part  missionary  and 
part  buccaneer. 

Under  royal  sanction  "The  Company  of  Scotland  Trad- 
ing to  Africa  and  the  Indies,  and  their  Colony  of  Darien" 
was  formed,  and  in  1698  were  landed  on  the  Isthmus  1200 
shrewd  Caledonians,  insanely  shrewd,  half  of  them  at  least 
young  men  of  good  Scottish  families;  also  English  gentle- 
men, retired  army  officers,  and  others,  all  envied  at  depart- 
ure by  thousands  of  eager  aspirants  obliged  to  remain  at 
home.  A  capital  of  £400,000  with  £600,000  for  expenses 
of  the  expedition  was  quickly  subscribed  in  Edinburgh, 
London,  Hamburg  and  Amsterdam,  one  hundred  pound 
shares  quickly  advancing  in  price  to  £1000  and  £1500. 

More  vessels  were  sent  out  and  more  money  invested, 
until  when  the  inevitable  crash  came,  the  loss  from  fever, 
famine,  and  shipwreck  amounted  to  a  score  of  ships,  2000 
lives,  and  several  millions  of  money. 

Similar  schemes  were  concocted,  one  in  London  and 
one  in  Paris,  with  similar  results,  narration  of  which 
would  be  but  repetition;  the  former,  called  the  South 
Sea  bubble,  being  the  creation  of  the  South  Sea  company 
in  1711  by  Lord  Harley,  earl  of  Oxford,  for  trading  into 
South  America,  and  for  the  extinction  of  the  national 
debt;  the  latter  called  the  Company  of  the  West,  origina- 
ting with  John  Law  in  1719  for  the  easement  of  French 
finances.  A  royal  bank  with  Law  as  director-general  is- 
sued currency  to  the  amount  of  2,700,000,000  livres. 

The  province  of  Louisiana,  which  gave  it  the  name  of 


24  RETROSPECTION 

Mississippi  bubble  when  it  burst,  was  thrown  into  the 
scheme,  the  strange  part  of  it  being  that  the  property 
represented  was  worth  the  money,  and  is  to-day  worth  a 
thousand  times  the  money. 

Sir  Thomas  More's  material  rather  than  spiritual 
speculation  chose  for  its  ideally  perfect  place  an  island, 
which  might  easily  be  enlarged  to  a  continent,  or  if  success- 
ful in  a  small  way  why  should  it  not  embrace  all  the 
world?  His  ideally  perfect  conditions  referred  to  social 
and  political  systems,  whence  we  might  infer  that  the 
social  and  political  systems  of  our  present  civilizations 
are  not  perfect  but  to  be  improved,  or,  being  necessary 
evils,  if  to  be  dispensed  with  altogether,  as  in  Eden  or  in 
aboriginal  lands,  so  much  the  better.  Therefore  we  may 
not  be  so  sure  after  all  that  the  naked  savages  of  the  two 
Americas  were  not  nearer  Utopia  than  Sir  Thomas  More's 
galvanized  civilization. 

It  is  so  small  an  affair,  a  few  years  of  life  on  this 
planet  as  compared  with  an  eternity  hereafter,  that  it 
seems  out  of  place  spending  all  of  our  time  in  perfecting 
earthly  conditions;  hence  the  wisdom  of  adding  to  our 
efforts  heavenly  benefits. 

And  yet  religion  seeks  an  earthly  Utopia  as  well  as  a 
heavenly  one,  and  finds  comfort  in  the  seeking,  as  Salem 
and  Boston  found  comfort  in  reclaiming  humanity,  while 
these  and  all  the  rest  were  easily  reconciling  themselves 
to  the  passing  of  the  Indians. 

The  Puritans  colonized  religion  and  adapted  it  to  busi- 
ness methods,  and  while  they  anchored  it  to  the  soil  a 
score  of  ephemeral  efforts  were  made,  like  that  of  John 
Kelpius'  Pietists,  who  established  a  brotherhood  in  1694 
at  Wissahickon,  or  like  Peter  Sluyter's  Labadists,  colonized 
at  Chesapeake  bay,  soon  to  die  out  and  be  forgotten. 

Most  successful  of  all  was  William  Penn's  Utopia, 
which  went  well  as  long  as  its  founder  lived,  but  fell  in 
pieces  afterward  like  all  others.  Pennsylvania  flourished 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  25 

in  fanaticism  following  the  decline  of  Quakerism.  A  Ger- 
man, Beissel,  established  at  Ephrata  in  1728  a  monastic 
society  of  celibates,  which  naturally  came  to  grief. 
Jemima  Wilkinson  nourished  for  a  time  as  a  divine  emis- 
sary in  central  New  York.  A  society  of  French  aristocrats 
and  army  officers  labored  with  their  hands  for  the  com- 
mon good  on  the  Susquehanna  in  1793. 

Ann  Lee  came  from  Manchester,  England,  to  America 
in  1774,  and  established  the  Shaking  Quakers  at  New 
Lebanon. 

Count  Zinzendorf's  Bohemian  brethren,  or  Moravians, 
in  Georgia,  Pennsylvania,  and  among  the  Indians,  in  1741 
numbered  94  colonies  with  11,781  members,  the  chief 
settlement  being  at  Bethlehem. 

George  Rapp,  a  persecuted  preacher  of  Wiirttemberg, 
in  1803  brought  to  America  750  of  his  Separatists,  and 
founded  the  communal  settlements  of  Harmony  and  Econ- 
omy in  Pennsylvania,  and  New  Harmony,  Indiana,  after- 
ward sold  to  John  Owen,  a  proselyting  Scotchman,  who 
before  he  failed  founded  eleven  other  communities. 
Another  society  of  Separatists  was  established  in  1817  by 
Joseph  Bimelar  at  Zoar,  Ohio.  Swiss  Inspirationists  in 
1842  founded  the  community  of  Ebenezer,  near  Buffalo, 
afterward  removing  to  Iowa. 

Other  apostles  of  economic  religion  were  the  Francis- 
cans of  California,  the  missionaries  in  Oregon,  and  the 
Mormons  in  Utah.  There  are  also  to  this  day  schools  of 
divine  healing,  schools  of  mysticism,  and  scores  of  other 
associations  seeking  for  the  unattainable  good. 

Even  philosophy  and  learning  come  forward  with 
Utopian  plans  to  try,  notably  the  Brook  Farm  coterie  of 
intellectually  refined  New  Englanders,  whose  fantasy 
was  the  union  of  learning  with  farm  labor,  devoting  half 
a  day  to  each.  They  carried  the  matter  along  in  a  desul- 
tory sort  of  way  for  four  years,  when  it  fell  in  pieces, 
their  philosophy  being  no  better  than  their  farming.; 


26  RETROSPECTION 

The  one  all-powerful  instinct  of  individuality,  the  one 
all-pervading  human  desire  of  personal  possession,  posses- 
sion of  property,  of  wife,  of  children,  of  home,  have  always 
stood,  and  will  so  stand  until  man's  nature  changes,  in  the 
way  of  universal  brotherhood  and  the  communal  life. 

The  Franciscans  in  California  present  somewhat  of  a 
unique  picture,  and  so  long  as  they  had  the  country  to 
themselves  they  came  as  near  as  it  is  possible  toward  estab- 
lishing a  Utopia  among  savages. 

Their  one  object,  a  safe  seat  in  heaven  for  themselves 
and  their  converts,  appeared  under  three  several  phases, 
self-sacrifice,  the  sacrifice  of  others,  and  absolute  rule. 
Even  Junipero  Serra,  the  father  president,  was  not  above 
self-flagellations  before  the  Indians  for  example's  sake, 
as  the  medicine-men  of  native  tribes  mutilate  themselves 
with  sharp  stones  to  impress  their  fellows.  And  death, 
why  should  they  fear  it,  which  was  but  opening  the  door 
to  paradise? 

Very  low  in  the  scale  of  humanity  were  these  whom  the 
priests  had  come  to  save.  Entirely  naked,  skin  black  and 
coarse  matted  hair,  eaters  of  snails  and  grasshoppers,  with 
holes  in  the  ground  and  huts  of  brush  for  houses,  were  it 
not  better  to  leave  them  as  God  had  made  them,  God  who 
should  know  why  he  had  made  them  so,  rather  than  cast 
reflection  upon  his  work  by  attempting  to  improve  upon 
it?  Not  so.  For  where  then  would  be  the  church,  the  mis- 
sionary work,  and  this  preaching  the  gospel  to  every 
creature  ? 

Two  years  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  in  1767, 
and  the  occupation  of  the  Peninsula  by  the  Dominicans, 
the  order  of  Saint  Francis  built  the  first  of  its  score  of 
mission  establishments  in  Alta  California  at  San  Diego. 
The  father  president  was  personally  in  charge  of  explora- 
tion and  construction  in  this  the  first  invasion  of  this 
region  by  Europeans. 

The  missionaries  aimed  as  nearly  as  practicable  to 
plant  an  establishment  every  fifteen  leagues,  which  should 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  27 

give  them  about  twenty  to  San  Francisco  bay,  their  ultima 
thule  of  present  endeavor.  Each  mission  claimed  pro- 
prietorship half-way  to  its  neighbor  on  either  side. 

First  they  must  impress  their  mastery  upon  these  dull 
clods — why  should  omniscience  have  given  this  lowest  of 
intelligences  the  fairest  spot  of  earth?  Surely  not  for 
development,  not  for  appreciation;  during  the  thou- 
sand years  more  or  less  of  their  occupation  of  this  garden 
they  had  not  advanced  an  iota;  they  could  not  retrograde 
being  born  at  the  bottom.  As  for  subconsciousness  and 
oversoul  or  other  involved  psychology  of  savagism,  they 
had  none,  save  such  as  they  held  in  common  with  the  jack- 
rabbits  around  them ;  and  when  it  came  to  a  realization  of 
the  blessings  they  enjoyed,  they  could  appreciate  an  un- 
cooked rattle-snake  steak  but  they  did  not  understand  the 
stars. 

Thus  the  poor  padres  found  their  work  of  conversion 
much  the  same  as  if  their  neophytes  had  been  drawn  from 
these  same  jack-rabbits,  into  whose  patient  ears  the  streams 
of  salvation  must  be  poured. 

Nevertheless  with  good  heart  they  went  about  their 
work,  for  he  that  believeth  much  loveth  much.  The  mis- 
sion site  was  carefully  selected  at  some  little  distance 
from  the  boat-landing  and  presidio,  or  fort,  so  that  the 
influence  of  the  wicked  ones  might  not  reach  their  inno- 
cents. Then  building  began,  sun-dried  mud  mixed  with 
dried  grass  being  the  principal  material.  The  padres 
had  no  difficulty  in  bribing  their  neophytes  to  work  a 
little,  their  preference  being  material  rather  than  spiritual 
rewards. 

The  natives  at  each  mission  numbered  from  two  to  five 
thousand,  lessening  one-half  every  twenty  years.  The 
men  and  women  occupied  separate  quarters  until  properly 
married.  In  due  time  they  found  courage  to  do  a  little 
fighting,  but  for  the  most  part  they  were  peaceable. 

Issues  frequently  arose  between  the  temporal  and 
spiritual  powers,  but  were  settled  in  the  main  without 


28  RETROSPECTION 

serious  controversy.  The  military  was  its  own  master, 
yet  it  was  there  to  serve  the  church,  which  was  all  power- 
ful up  to  the  time  of  secularization  in  1834.  Mission  prop- 
erty then  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  government,  or  to 
those  who  were  able  to  seize  and  hold  it,  the  missionaries 
still  retaining  sufficient  for  their  purposes,  while  liberal 
grants  of  land  were  made  to  whomsoever  asked  for  them. 

Some  of  the  missions  became  wealthy  in  cattle,  sheep, 
and  horses,  raising  besides  more  than  they  could  sell  of 
fruit,  grain,  oil,  and  wine.  They  had  their  workshops, 
some  of  the  natives  becoming  quite  skilful  workers  in  iron, 
wool,  and  leather.  It  was  common  for  the  missions  to  have 
running  at  large  of  cattle  1000  to  5000 ;  of  sheep  1000  to 
12,000 ;  of  horses  100  to  1000 ;  also  mules,  goats,  and  swine. 
They  raised  from  5000  to  100,000  bushels  of  wheat  per 
annum;  1000  to  25,000  bushels  of  barley;  1000  to  20,000 
bushels  of  corn;  and  50  to  2500  bushels  of  beans. 

Thus  under  the  happiest  auspices,  and  with  the  fullest 
enjoyment  of  their  Utopia,  did  these  indigenes  of 
California  achieve  civilization,  or  would  have  achieved  it 
had  they  lived,  and  not  have  died  from  protection  and  kind- 
ness; for  when  taken  in  their  low  estate  and  placed  in 
contact  with  civilization  the  savages  are  killed  as  surely, 
if  not  as  quickly,  by  kindness  as  by  the  sword  of  their 
conquerors. 

The  Perfectionists,  in  an  attempt  to  live  a  sinless  life, 
were  driven  from  Vermont  because  of  their  free-love  pro- 
clivities, and  in  1848  settled  at  Oneida,  New  York.  Mor- 
monism  arose  in  western  New  York,  became  infected  with 
polygamy  in  Illinois,  and  in  1848  fled  into  the  deserts  of 
the  Great  Salt  Lake. 

The  origin  and  exodus  of  the  Mormons,  their  ethnic 
evolution  and  occupation  of  Utah,  if  analyzed  as  a  prob- 
lem and  not  indulged  in  as  a  prejudice  forms  an  interest- 
ing study. 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  29 

Theirs  is  one  of  the  few  religions  of  the  century  which 
seems  to  have  come  to  stay.  It  is  remarkable  primarily  in 
its  indigenous  origin  and  logical  development,  attended 
by  the  usual  signs  and  wonders,  miracles  and  revelations, 
and,  in  spite  of  a  crude  mystic  mechanism,  all  visible  to 
the  naked  eye.  Springing  up  in  a  field  fertilized  by 
stupidity  and  credulity,  it  has  grown  to  become  a  great 
tree,  bringing  forth  fruit  after  its  kind.  Although  acci- 
dental and  spontaneous  in  its  inception,  without  premedi- 
tation or  design  on  the  part  of  any  artificer,  it  was  un- 
folded by  palpable  means,  the  work  usually  occupying 
five  centuries  being  accomplished  in  half  a  century.  Even 
such  parts  as  appear  more  like  modern  invention,  with 
mechanical  contrivances  so  gross  as  to  be  revolting,  dis- 
play little  ability  or  constructive  skill. 

It  is  a  theocracy  singularly  devoid  of  originality.  In 
quality  it  is  second  rate  as  religions  run,  yet  more  pro- 
nounced in  its  several  parts  than  any  of  them;  Hebrew  of 
the  Hebrews,  more  Christian  than  Christianity,  more 
ethical  than  Buddhism,  more  involved  than  Mohammed- 
anism. It  is  essentially  an  imitation,  and  as  is  common 
in  imitations,  inclined  to  outdo  its  exemplar.  Less  than  a 
century  old,  of  tough,  coarse  fiber,  with  all  its  secrets  laid 
bare  before  an  enlightened  world,  it  yet  displays  unmistak- 
able signs  of  endurance,  with  flame  enough  in  its  fanati- 
cism to  warrant  its  burning  for  awhile  with  the  best  of 
them. 

This  is  how  it  came  about.  At  Palmyra,  in  western 
New  York,  not  far  from  general  intelligence  and  puritanism, 
lived  a  common-place  family  by  the  name  of  Smith,  who 
had  floated  thither  from  Vermont.  One  of  the  members, 
Joseph,  born  in  1805,  set  himself  up  as  a  Messiah,  for 
which  he  was  killed  at  Carthage,  Illinois,  in  1844. 

In  common  with  many  of  their  neighbors,  the  Smiths 
were  poor  and  shiftless,  with  a  faculty  for  believing  to  be 
true  whatever  they  were  told,  and  as  ready  to  delude  as 
to  be  deluded.  Wealth  without  work,  and  a  short  and  easy 


30  RETROSPECTION 

road  to  heaven,  comprised  their  philosophy  of  life.  Hid- 
den treasure,  with  supernatural  means  for  its  discovery, 
was  ever  a  favorite  theme.  The  boy  Joseph,  with  his  magic 
peep-stone  and  witch-hazel  divining  rod,  could  make  the 
other  boys,  and  even  his  elders,  follow  him  and  dig  as  he 
directed.  Of  a  harmlessly  dissolute  disposition  the  youth 
delighted  in  tricking  his  companions,  and  playing  upon 
the  credulity  of  the  community  by  telling  fortunes  and 
reeling  off  yarns  as  the  fantasies  arose  in  his  vagrant  mind. 

Into  this  caldron  of  malodorous  conceit  was  presently 
projected  an  element  whose  effect  might  be  little  dreamed 
of.  It  appeared  in  the  form  of  an  unpublished  book  by  a 
Presbyterian  clergyman,  the  Reverend  Spaulding,  entitled 
The  Manuscript  Found.  It  had  been  sent  by  the  author, 
just  before  his  death,  to  a  printing  office  in  Pittsburg  for 
publication,  but  was  thrown  aside,  and  soon  became  office 
rubbish.  Later  it  was  unearthed,  and  after  passing  about 
as  a  thing  of  no  value,  it  finally  fell  into  the  hands  of 
Joseph  Smith,  and  became  eventually  one  of  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  under  the  title  of  The 
Book  of  Mormon. 

Its  apotheosis  was  in  this  wise.  Opening  the  book  and 
glancing  through  its  contents,  Joseph  found  written,  in 
biblical  style,  a  sort  of  religious  romance,  being  a  hypo- 
thetical account  of  the  migrations  from  Babel,  also  of  the 
adventures  in  America  of  the  ten  lost  tribes  of  Israel, 
whom  the  author  made  progenitors  of  the  Indians.  Joseph 
read  and  pondered.  Though  cunning,  he  was  not  wise, 
still  less  learned. 

Was  this  book  part  of  the  Bible  ?  No.  Why  not  ?  The 
Bible  is  made  up  of  parts,  or  books,  thrown  together. 
Perhaps  this  is  a  book  of  the  Bible  left  out.  Or  it  may  be 
another  Bible.  If  not,  might  it  not  stand  for  another 
religion?  The  counterpart  or  companion,  perhaps,  of 
the  Hebrew  scriptures.  Put  the  two  Bibles  and  the  two 
religions  together, — there  is  an  idea !  What  an  oppor- 
tunity for  a  grand  coup  ! 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  31 

Here  comes  in  the  mystic  machinery.  This  book  looks 
like  a  Bible,  or  part  of  one.  To  make  it  so  in  the  eyes  of 
men,  and  as  a  guarantee  of  its  inspiration,  it  must  have 
divine  origin  and  supernatural  advent.  Moreover,  if  there 
is  to  be  a  new  religion  a  personage  must  appear,  anything 
will  do,  even  a  Joseph  Smith,  prophet  priest  and  king  of 
the  early  and  later  dispensations,  so  that  he  be  in  direct 
communication  with  heaven  and  able  to  prove  it.  The 
pretended  original  of  the  Spaulding  manuscript,  the 
manuscript  which  as  was  alleged  had  been  found,  might 
serve  an  important  purpose  if  it  could  be  made  miraculous. 
And  so  on. 

It  is  safe  to  assume,  judging  from  subsequent  develop- 
ments, that  by  some  such  train  of  reflection  Spaulding 's 
Manuscript  Found  was  transformed  into  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon, Joseph  Smith  into  a  new  Messiah,  and  the  church  of 
aboriginal  Israel  into  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter- 
day  Saints,  for  that  such  transformations  were  made  is  a 
historical  fact. 

To  imagine  Mormonism  the  invention  of  Joseph  Smith, 
or  of  any  one  else,  a  scheme  or  premeditated  plan  wrought 
out  from  its  inceptioij  by  a  subtle  and  prolific  brain,  or 
by  any  number  of  them,  is  as  far  from  the  probable  as  to 
refer  its  authorship  direct  to  supernatural  agency,  with 
the  prophets  and  apostles  as  media  for  all  the  miracles  and 
divine  manifestations  they  claim  to  have  been  accom- 
plished through  them.  The  true  disciple  solves  the  problem 
by  uniting  the  mysteries  and  making  God  the  author  of 
all,  the  prophet  and  his  performances  included. 

Nor  is  it  impossible  that  Joseph  at  a  later  period, 
from  deceiving  others  proceeds  unconsciously  to  deceive 
himself,  thus  becoming  his  latest  and  most  important 
creation  and  convert. 

It  is  not  impossible,  as  time  passed  and  new  and 
wonderful  happenings  fell  upon  him,  that  the  vagrant 
youth  into  whose  hands  thus  accidentally  fell  the  Spauld- 
ing manuscript,  and  whose  only  thought  at  first  was  to 


32  KETROSPECTION 

amuse  himself  at  the  expense  of  his  parents  and  neigh- 
bors,— for  his  parents  it  is  said  were  among  the  first  to 
receive  his  words  as  truth,  or  to  pretend  to  do  so, — after 
many  iterations  of  his  fable,  and  seeing  the  seriousness 
with  which  it  was  accepted  by  his  elders,  forgot  the  manu- 
factured part,  whose  details  grew  dim  with  time  and  re- 
ligious fervor,  forgot  Joe  Smith  and  remembered  only  the 
prophet  of  the  Lord.  An  idealist,  and  essentially  vision- 
ary in  both  sacred  and  secular  matters,  as  time  passed  on 
toward  the  later  periods  of  his  career  he  may  have  fancied 
himself  in  truth  the  recipient  of  messages  direct  from 
heaven.  Since  so  many  united  in  asserting  his  divinity, 
was  it  not  possible  that  he  was  indeed  divine?  Though 
known  to  him,  as  to  no  one  else,  were  all  the  falsehoods 
he  had  told  and  the  fantastic  tricks  he  had  played,  yet 
might  it  not  be  that  these  lies  and  tricks  were  of  the  Lord, 
their  proper  use  thus  given  to  him,  Joseph,  for  a  mighty 
purpose,  as  a  means  of  grace,  and  for  God 's  greater  glory  ? 

Nature  had  endowed  the  prophet  thus  improvised  by 
fate  with  shrewd  wit;  and  though  of  somewhat  shallow 
mind  he  possessed  a  vivid  imagination  and  magnetic  per- 
sonality. That  he  was  successful  shows  that  he  was  not 
without  ability,  though  he  was  far  less  capable  in  certain 
directions  than  some  of  those  who  succeeded  him.  That  he 
was  unscrupulous  did  not  trouble  his  conscience,  for  such 
had  been  his  training  from  his  youth  up,  and  his  con- 
science, moreover,  was  from  the  Lord  and  for  his  work. 
And  the  thought  of  his  proposed  work  was  not  so  discom- 
fiting to  his  mind  as  might  be  imagined. 

There  should  be  no  great  difficulty  in  achieving  the 
supernatural  on  the  part  of  one  who  had  practiced  miracles 
all  his  life,  still  less  in  making  people  think  they  believed 
in  it,  for  great  is  the  gullibility  of  mankind ! 

A  plausible  account  must  be  given  of  the  coming  of 
this  gift  from  heaven,  this  book  of  Mormon.  We  have 
it  here. 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  33 

And  now  a  vision  fell  upon  Joseph.  The  angel  Moroni 
appeared  and  directed  him  to  a  cave  on  the  hillside,  where 
he  found  metal  plates,  on  which  were  inscribed  strange 
characters,  which  by  the  aid  of  his  peep-stone  he  was  able 
to  interpret.  From  behind  a  screen,  with  such  interpola- 
tions as  seemed  to  suit  his  purpose,  the  prophet  read  off 
from  Spaulding's  manuscript  his  Book  of  Mormon,  which 
was  taken  down  by  an  amanuensis  just  outside  the  sacred 
precinct,  and  published  by  "Joseph  Smith,  jun.,  author 
and  proprietor,  Palmyra,  New  York,  1830." 

The  work  finished,  the  angel  closed  the  cave  and  car- 
ried away  the  metal  plates. 

Thus  was  evolved  this  latter-day  theocracy.  Doubtless 
if  the  truth  were  told  in  relation  to  the  origin  of  any 
other  religion  nothing  more  wonderful  would  be  found, 
nothing  more  worthy  of  credence.  All  religions  are  patch- 
work, but  all  religions  are  not  all  patchwork;  few 
have  been  so  nearly  so  as  Mormonism,  which  had  been 
better  with  some  of  the  patches  omitted,  parts  such  as  civil- 
ization had  some  time  since  compelled  the  older  religions 
to  eliminate. 

The  tenets  of  the  Mormon  faith  are  derived  entirely 
from  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  of  the  orthodox  scrip- 
tures, principally  from  the  former,  which  are  accepted 
literally  and  followed  to  their  logical  conclusions.  The 
Book  of  Mormon,  which  is  annexed  to  the  Bible  as  a  part 
of  it,  is  a  crude  romance,  a  mere  flight  of  fancy,  but  to 
one  who  had  never  known  aught  of  either  there  is  nothing 
more  unnatural,  or  more  difficult  of  belief,  in  the  books  of 
Nephi  and  Alma,  in  the  book  of  Moroni,  who  was  the 
angel,  or  in  the  book  of  Mormon,  from  which  the  volume 
takes  its  name,  than  in  the  books  of  Genesis  and  Joshua; 
nothing  more  difficult  of  belief  in  the  revelations  of  Joseph 
Smith  than  in  the  revelations  of  Saint  John  the  Divine. 

Feeling  his  way,  sounding  the  credulity  of  his  fol- 
lowers and  searching  his  scriptures  for  models  for  his  hier- 
archy, Joseph  was  able  in  due  time  to  present  his  forms 


34  RETROSPECTION 

and  rituals,  temple  tabernacle  and  holy  of  holies,  priest- 
hood and  tithing,  constitution  and  council,  blood  atone- 
ment anointment  and  twelve  apostles,  miracles  and  all 
sorts  of  spiritual  manifestations  and  revelations,  all  drawn 
from  holy  writ,  all  in  strict  accordance  with  the  sacred 
scriptures  of  the  orthodox  Christian  sects. 

Obviously  miracles,  the  vital  requisite  of  every  new 
faith,  must  be  at  hand;  also  revelation  and  every  celestial 
telegraphy.  For  if  all  this  was  once  wise  and  beneficent, 
God  being  God,  it  is  the  same  now. 

The  Almighty,  immutable  and  unchangeable,  having 
once  established  a  decree,  it  must  stand  forever.  Cus- 
toms once  having  had  divine  sanction  cannot  be  obliterated 
by  civilization. 

They  held  it  unreasonable  to  accept  the  scriptures  as 
the  word  of  God,  and  then  explain  away  such  parts  of  it 
as  from  time  to  time  became  intolerable  to  ever-unfolding 
human  intelligence.  If  polygamy,  slavery,  or  other  alleged 
abomination  were  once  right  in  his  sight,  and  stand  as  they 
do  unrebuked  upon  the  pages  of  scripture,  then  they  are 
right  now;  if  miracles  and  revelations  once  obtained,  they 
obtain  now;  if  the  law  limits  a  man  to  one  wife,  then  it 
should  compel  every  man  to  marry,  else  many  women  are 
unjustly  deprived  of  husbands,  and  the  millions  of  dis- 
embodied spirits  seeking  incarnation  are  defrauded. 

Jn  which  Mormonism  makes  the  not  uncommon  mis- 
take of  investing  religion  with  the  superior  force  in 
psychic  development,  and  the  dominant  influence  in  ethics. 
It  does  not  recognize  the  fact  that  civilization  ever  pre- 
cedes and  regulates  religion,  toning  down  its  asperities 
and  eliminating  its  barbarities;  also  that  the  powers  of 
light  and  darkness  are  with  law  and  progress,  and  not  with 
superstition  or  fanaticism;  that  this  power  no  religion  can 
withstand  and  being  absolute  is  right  and  must  be  obeyed. 

Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  of  all  interpretations  of  the 
scriptures  this  is  the  most  logical.  To  every  religion  the 
beliefs  of  every  other  religion  are  a  bundle  of  absurdities, 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  35 

while  to  the  uninfected  agnostic  they  are  all  equally  ab- 
surd. Orthodoxy  has  cut  loose  from  the  restraint  of  the 
written  word,  so  that  every  Sunday  throughout  the  Chris- 
tian world  ten  thousand  preachers  of  the  word  ascend  the 
pulpit  and  in  half  an  hour  tell  God  more  about  himself 
than  he  ever  knew;  tell  the  people  what  God  sees,  how  he 
feels,  what  he  loves  and  hates,  what  he  wants  or  does  not 
want,  until  Deity  himself  thus  recreated  stands  agape. 

A  church  was  organized  with  priests  and  presidency 
in  1833,  the  twelve  apostles  being  added  two  years  later. 
Miracles  were  then  in  order;  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
the  angel  declined  leaving  the  metal  plates  with  Joseph, 
but  spirited  them  away  as  soon  as  the  Book  of  Mormon 
was  finished,  for  every  one  knew  well  that  nothing  short  of 
a  miracle  could  have  brought  so  much  gold  into  the  Smith 
family. 

The  mantle  of  the  prophets  fell  on  Joseph,  and  he 
prophesied  and  spake  in  tongues. 

Which  assumption  was  a  little  too  much  for  some  of 
his  neighbors,  this  and  the  fact  that  the  brethren  were 
always  united,  politically  and  industrially,  clannish  they 
called  it  and  un-American ;  more  un-American,  perhaps, 
than  was  the  killing  of  Mormons  in  the  Carthage  jail. 

We  fancy  that  we  hate  the  Mormons  because  of  their 
polygamy.  It  is  not  so.  Up  to  the  time  of  their  fiercest 
persecution  in  Illinois  there  had  been  no  polygamy.  When 
they  were  driven  from  New  York,  from  Ohio,  from  Mis- 
souri, there  had  been  no  polygamy.  They  were  hated  first 
as  one  religion  hates  another,  as  Jews  hate  Christians,  and 
as  Christians  hate  Pagans.  Then  they  became  a  power  in 
politics,  dominated  a  county,  voted  together  and  filled  the 
offices.  Like  Chinese,  they  were  temperate,  kept  to  them- 
selves, worked  hard,  and  were  thrifty  and  honest,  and  so 
were  hated  by  the  lazy  and  licentious. 

This  was  the  real  cause  of  their  offending,  as  it  was 
with  the  Chinese.  Politicians  fanned  the  flame,  and  so 


36  RETROSPECTION 

made  votes  for  themselves;  the  public  press  joined  in  the 
cry,  as  on  the  side  of  the  stronger  lay  their  profit. 

For  I  have  noticed  that  it  is  the  lazy  and  worthless 
who  shout  loudest  against  the  Asiatics,  and  it  is  often  the 
immoral  men  and  women  of  so-called  respectable  society 
that  are  the  foremost  in  denouncing  the  Mormons. 

In  Ohio,  in  1832,  appeared  among  the  brethren  Brig- 
ham  Young,  seeking  truth,  later  to  be  high  priest  of  the 
people,  a  Moses  in  the  coming  exodus,  and  in  the  flowery 
desert  of  Utah  chief  of  the  hierarchy.  He  found  Joseph 
chopping  wood,  and  hailed  him  as  prophet  of  the  Lord. 
He  had  seen  and  read  the  Book  of  Mormon,  and  pro- 
nounced himself  converted.  He  was  a  native  of  Vermont, 
four  years  older  than  Joseph,  which  made  him  at  this 
time  thirty-one  years  of  age.  They  became  warm  friends; 
such  was  Brigham's  policy.  Punctilious  at  all  points  as 
before  a  divine  master,  he  nevertheless  made  the  prophet 
his  protege,  several  times  saving  his  life  in  the  persecu- 
tions that  followed. 

Brigham  plunged  at  once  into  the  midst  of  things,  his 
dominant  will  carrying  all  before  it,  yet  with  such  judi- 
cious tact  as  not  to  cause  offence.  In  his  first  prayer  in 
public  he  spoke  in  tongues,  as  he  expressed  it,  and  on 
being  questioned  as  to  the  language,  he  soberly  declared  it 
to  be  pure  Adamic. 

The  prophet  consulted  with  him  as  to  church  policy 
and  revelations.  They  discussed  polygamy  as  a  tenet  of 
their  faith  and  resolved  on  its  introduction  by  divine 
revelation,  which  was  done  in  1843,  only  a  year  before  the 
prophet's  death.  It  was  practised  in  secret  at  first,  and 
only  appeared  in  full  bloom  after  reaching  Utah;  hence, 
contrary  to  popular  impression,  it  had  little  to  do  with 
their  expatriation. 

"Yet  what  would  you,  Brother  Brigham?"  we  might 
have  heard  Joseph  say,  when,  on  the  12th  of  July,  1843, 
came  the  revelation  commanding  polygamy.  "What 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  37 

would  you  when  man  comes  into  existence  as  a  disem- 
bodied spirit,  of  which  the  universe  is  full,  seeking  incar- 
nation? To  advance  this-  purpose  is  to  give  God  and 
man  the  greatest  glory.  Hence  the  sacred  obligation 
on  the  part  of  woman,  one  of  the  rewards  attending  it 
being  plenary  indulgence;  all  sins  heretofore  committed 
forgiven.  Think  of  it,  Brother  Brigham.  Unmarried 
women  cannot  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

The  wrath  of  the  Illinois  gentiles  was  somewhat  ap- 
peased on  the  promise  of  the  Saints  to  go,  but  that  did 
not  prevent  them  from  taking  every  advantage  of  the 
Mormons  while  disposing  of  such  property  as  they  were 
unable  to  take  with  them. 

In  June,  1844,  a  riot  occurred  from  the  suppression 
of  an  abusive  gentile  newspaper  by  the  Mormons,  and 
among  those  arrested  were  Joseph  Smith  and  his  brother 
Hiram,  who  were  soon  after  assassinated  in  Carthage 
jail. 

The  followers  of  the  prophet  were  now  counted  by 
thousands,  though  there  were  many  apostates  who  declined 
polygamy.  In  the  coming  exodus,  unless  the  main  body 
could  be  kept  united  the  society  would  break  up  and  prob- 
ably drop  out  of  existence,  as  so  many  others  had  done. 
There  were  several  claimants  for  the  leadership,  some  of 
them  with  pretentious  superior  to  Brigham 's,  but  none 
with  his  rugged  genius.  He  established  a  rule  of  succession, 
giving  himself  the  first  incumbency,  which  he  felt  sure  he 
could  make  last  a  lifetime. 

Thus  fell  the  prophet's  mantle  on  Brigham  Young, 
but  for  whose  deep  insight  into  human  nature  and  shrewd 
ability  Mormonism  at  this  juncture  would  probably  have 
fallen  in  pieces.  Whether  or  not  he  was  the  original  in- 
stigator of  polygamy,  he  now  favored  the  measure,  fore- 
seeing the  results  which  would  accrue  in  a  far  away 
wilderness,  whither  he  hastened  to  conduct  his  people. 

He  could  not  foresee,  however,  the  acquisition  of 
California,  the  discovery  of  gold,  and  the  tide  of  emigra- 


38  RETROSPECTION 

tion  destined  so  soon  to  break  in  upon  the  peace  of  Utah. 
Meanwhile  he  became  what  Joseph  Smith  never  was,  abso- 
lute master  of  the  Mormons — dominator  and  lord  of  every 
man  and  woman  of  them,  of  their  lives  and  fortunes,  of 
their  bodies  and  souls.  Marriages  and  massacres  he 
ordered  at  pleasure,  divine  revelation  of  whatsoever  qual- 
ity desired  being  ever  ready  at  hand.  He  could  preach 
and  pray  and  prophesy,  interlarding  his  discourses  with 
maledictions  dire  and  deep,  which  rumbled  through  the 
Rocky  mountains  to  the  east  and  to  the  west. 

It  was  the  cardinal  error  of  this  rough-hewn  theocracy, 
making  all  its  women  wives,  and  that  so  openly  as  to  bring 
down  upon  its  church  the  censure  of  the  immaculate 
world.  Had  each  patriarch  presented  to  the  public  one 
wife  only,  and  sealed  the  others  as  concubines,  following 
scriptural  methods,  or  as  mistresses  after  the  manner  of 
orthodox  immorality,  much  trouble  might  have  been  saved. 

The  assassination  of  Joseph  strengthened  if  indeed  it 
did  not  save  the  church.  As  Christ  had  died  so  died 
Joseph  for  his  people.  A  stronger  than  Joseph  must  now 
guide  the  multitude  and  establish  the  church  in  the  wilder- 
ness. 

So  Brigham  led  them  forth,  resting  over  winter  at 
Omaha,  and  reaching  Salt  Lake  valley  in  1846.  There  he 
possessed  himself  of  that  people,  ruling  with  a  rod  of  iron 
for  thirty-three  years  and  filling  his  harem.  Isolated 
from  the  world  he  was  his  own  master,  and  their  prophet 
priest  and  king. 

His  absolutism  was  as  complete  in  financial  as  in 
ecclesiastical  affairs.  Following  the  announcement  of  a 
revelation,  never-failing  and  effective  as  a  means,  tithes 
were  brought  in  to  him ;  he  never  sent  out  a  collector ;  the 
faintest  hint  was  sufficient  to  bring  a  delinquent  to  his 
knees.  Of  that  which  was  brought  he  took  what  he  wanted 
for  himself  and  devoted  the  rest  to  the  church  and  to  the 
people.  He  rendered  no  accounting  to  any  one,  though 
after  his  reign  church  account  books  were  kept. 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  39 

He  cared  nothing  for  personal  wealth;  why  amass  for 
himself  when  all  was  his?  He  cared  greatly  for  the  wel- 
fare of  his  people.  He  considered  their  interests,  after 
considering  his  own;  he  was  fair  to  them,  after  being  fair 
to  himself. 

In  the  eyes  of  his  many  humble  subjects,  there  were 
united  in  him  divine  and  temporal  power.  His  word  was 
law  even  in  matters  of  life  and  death.  A  contrast  in  every 
way  to  the  prophet  Joseph,  he  was  a  born  master  of  men, 
shrewd  and  bold  yet  cautious  and  considerate. 

He  was  founder,  ordainer,  and  preserver  of  the  Mor- 
mon church  in  Utah.  Against  the  enemies  of  his  church  he 
would  rage  like  a  wild  beast,  filling  his  tabernacle  with 
loud  and  vulgar  denunciations,  to  the  edification  of  the 
brethren.  For  six  years,  from  1856  to  1862,  he  stood  in 
armed  opposition  to  the  United  States. 

It  is  no  great  praise  to  say,  simply,  that  he  did  good 
work  in  the  transformation  of  the  desert,  for  to  him  the 
country  is  indebted  for  the  organization  and  development 
of  one  of  its  finest  cities  and  states.  As  Collier  says, 
"There  is  no  Rocky  mountain  community  that  shows  more 
growth  and  vigor  than  Salt  Lake  city.  The  streets,  laid 
out  by  the  early  Mormons  are  broad  and  straight,  and  the 
modern  buildings  that  are  now  going  up  will  help  to  make 
the  coming  city  one  of  the  foremost  in  the  entire  west. 
The  streets  are  filled  with  crowds  of  busy  shoppers  and 
active  business  men.  This  city,  in  the  heart  of  what  was, 
a  generation  ago,  the  great  American  desert,  is  now  the 
common  pride  of  Mormon  and  gentile.  It  is  a  monu- 
ment which  will  be  enduring,  to  the  spirit  of  the  far  west 
and  the  wisdom  of  the  pioneers." 

In  1882  the  government  disfranchised  polygamists,  and 
in  1890  the  church  being  in  organized  rebellion,  its  prop- 
erty was  confiscated.  A  thousand  polygamists  were 
arrested  and  sent  to  prison.  The  church  surrendered;  the 
extinction  of  polygamy  was  promised.  Monogamist  laws 
were  accepted  by  president  and  conference.  Acts  of 


40  RETROSPECTION 

amnesty  were  passed  in  1893-4,  and  Utah  was  admitted 
as  a  state  in  1896. 

The  Edmunds  law  making  plural  cohabitation  a  crime, 
though  made  in  Washington  was  not  for  Washington,  and 
it  never  was  applied  elsewhere  than  in  Utah.  The  Mor- 
mons in  a  measure  disregarded  it,  as  the  legislators  who 
made  the  law  disregarded  it,  as  all  the  people  throughout 
the  land  disregarded  it,  each  and  all  practising  their  pet 
wickedness  in  secret  while  denying  it  openly.  It  was 
surely  a  crime  thus  to  break  their  promise  and  defy  the 
law,  but  they  had  learned  iniquity  of  late  in  the  high- 
school  of  the  nation.  Hitherto  they  had  pursued  their 
tranquil  way  amid  their  flocks  and  families,  whom  they 
dearly  loved,  until  their  eyes  were  opened  by  the  law- 
makers in  Congress,  where  they  were  taught  all  the  latest 
methods  of  how  to  fix  things. 

We  all  know  that  religious  fanatics,  Christian  as  well 
as  pagan,  will  break  the  laws  of  man  rather  than  the  laws 
of  God.  But  evolution  is  inexorable,  and  in  giving  re- 
ligion the  precedence  over  progress  as  refiner  of  the  race 
our  plurality  friends  reverse  the  natural  order  of  things, 
and  they  must  needs  be  told  what  more  enlightened  people 
know,  that  all  along  the  ages  religion  has  befogged  the 
minds  of  men,  leading  them  into  fields  of  Golgotha,  and 
inflicting  on  humanity  every  species  of  cruelty,  wrong, 
and  injustice,  until  seized  and  forced  from  its  barbarities 
by  civilization,  by  the  unfolding  of  that  saving  grace 
which  perforce  must  prove  the  redemption  of  the  world. 

When  paganism  says,  "You  can  find  no  word  in  your 
scriptures  against  slavery,  polygamy,  and  other  like  enor- 
mities," civilization  can  only  reply,  "Then  there  is  some- 
where in  the  universe  a  more  refining  influence  than  that 
derived  from  the  old  testament. ' ' 

This  ever-progressing  force  pronounces  slavery  and 
polygamy  abominations  whose  sanction  would  bring  ruin 
on  the  race.  And  if  it  is  an  evil  in  the  open,  how  much 
more  is  it  in  crowded  habitations. 


UTOPIAN  DREAMS  41 

All  this,  however,  need  not  prevent  a  charitable  view 
of  the  case.  The  sins  of  the  righteous  are  many,  and 
need  forgiveness;  they  afford,  however,  no  excuse  for  the 
sins  of  the  wicked.  But  beneath  the  velvet  robes  of  con- 
vention which  enwrap  soul  and  body  who  shall  tell  sheep 
from  goats? 

Sensualists  you  say?  Not  so,  my  friend;  sensualism 
has  small  part  in  Mormon  marriages,  which  are  indeed  a 
religious  rite.  Your  true  sensualist  is  not  one  with  many 
wives,  but  one  with  many  women  and  no  wife. 

It  is  the  fashion  for  women  to  shriek  and  men  to 
bluster  at  mention  of  the  words  Mormon,  polygamy.  It 
is  well.  Virtue  must  have  its  vindication,  and  the  lack 
of  it  still  greater  vindication.  But  should  we  not  remem- 
ber that  vice  unmentionable  has  permanent  lodgment  with 
us?  We  know  it  and  know  it  not.  We  shut  our  eyes  and 
there  is  present  no  evil.  High  society  sanctions  it,  lotftily 
indifferent;  respectability  harbors  it,  apparently  uncon- 
scious, while  ministering  to  its  high  priests  within  the 
inner  temple.  Husband  and  son  smile  and  frown,  the 
wife  and  mother  look  the  other  way.  Over  the  portal, 
invisible  to  all  save  those  who  fathom  it,  is  written :  There 
are  more  unchaste  persons  in  every  large  city  in  Christen- 
dom than  there  are  Mormon  wives  in  Utah.  Wherefore 
good  people  all,  be  as  charitable  as  you  choose  to  your 
lecherous  loved  ones,  at  the  same  time  be  a  trifle  fair  to 
the  much-married  Mormon. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE    SILENT    MYSTERY    OF    THE    UNTENANTED    PLAINS 

TO  the  slowly  unfolding  intellect  of  early  Mediter- 
ranean peoples,  with  their  narrow  horizon  and  dim 
self-consciousness,  the  world  beyond  their  ken  was  not  a 
world.  In  the  north  was  a  wall  of  ice,  at  the  south  a  belt 
of  fire,  while  all  around  and  beyond  were  spirits  of  evil 
omen  floating  in  space.  There  were  assigned  for  departed 
souls  a  special  place  of  torment  for  some  and  a  land  of 
happiness  for  others,  and  thus  for  the  archaic  ages  all 
was  properly  arranged. 

Far  advanced  from  these  limited  imaginings  were  the 
minds  of  men  when  ages  afterward  the  Atlantic  became  the 
Sea  of  Darkness  with  its  island  of  Atlantis,  its  frozen 
north  and  melting  south,  and  over  beyond  visions  of  Fair 
Cathay  with  the  fragrant  isles  of  the  Celestial  East;  later 
to  become  a  sea  of  light  and  pathway  to  an  ocean  beyond, 
the  greatest  of  oceans,  but  destined  for  a  time  longer,  like 
the  others,  to  sit  in  darkness. 

And  for  a  century  or  two  after  the  shores  of  the 
Pacific  were  well  defined,  and  ships  could  sail  about  with 
confidence,  and  through  these  waters  might  even  circum- 
navigate the  globe,  the  interior  of  America  remained  as 
great  a  mystery  as  any  of  the  mysteries  preceding  it. 

Long  after  the  settlement  of  Jamestown,  or  the  coming 
of  the  Pilgrims  from  Holland,  wild  tales  were  current 
regarding  the  lands  newly  found,  brought  back  to  Spain 
and  England  by  mariners  from  both  oceans,  who  fre- 
quently paid  no  more  regard  to  truth  than  suited  their 
fancy  or  convenience.  This  might  the  more  safely  be 

42 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  UNTENANTED  PLAINS    43 

done  as  there  was  no  one  present  to  contradict  their 
report. 

Thus  California  was  mapped  as  an  island  and  peopled 
with  Amazons.  It  was  situated  "on  the  right  hand  side 
of  the  Indies,  very  near  the  terrestrial  paradise." 

While  journeying  overland  through  Texas  in  1535 
Cabeza  da  Vaca  heard  of  large  cities  toward  the  north, 
and  when  Friar  Marcos  de  Niza  was  sent  to  investigate 
he  deemed  it  best  to  find  something;  wherefore  he  discov- 
ered the  seven  cities  of  Cibola,  which  he  saw  from  a  hill,  the 
smallest  of  which  was  as  large  as  the  city  of  Mexico,  he  said. 

It  may  have  been  an  enlargement  of  the  tenements  of 
the  Zufii  in  the  good  friar's  imagination,  or  it  may  have 
been  pure  invention.  Whatever  it  was,  or,  rather,  what- 
ever it  was  not,  it  so  fired  the  cupidity  of  Francisco  Vas- 
quez  de  Coronado  as  to  lead  to  his  famous  expeditions  to 
New  Mexico  in  1540.  And  although  this  conquistador 
could  find  no  opulent  cities  he  saw  Niza's  Cibola,  which 
were  seven  Pueblo  villages,  more  or  less.  The  houses  were 
of  dried  mud  and  not  worth  destroying. 

Then  Coronado  was  told  of  Quivira,  a  brilliant  city 
beyond,  but  on  reaching  the  place  he  found  it  of  straw. 
Yet  he  could  not  return  empty-handed  and  with  silent 
tongue;  so  another  mythical  Quivira  was  improvised, 
richer  and  more  beautiful  by  far  than  any  hitherto 
thought  of,  while  the  country  around  was  a  paradise. 

Alonzo  de  Parades  placed  Quivira  in  Texas,  Jefferys 
in  Oregon,  Purchas  in  the  northwest,  Acosta  in  Florida, 
Avity  on  the  California  coast  below  Mendocino;  for  did 
not  Padre  Freytas  find  the  flitting  city  and  write  a  full 
and  true  account  of  it,  telling  of  all  the  magnificence  he 
saw  there,  and  of  much  that  he  did  not  see  ? 

This  myth  was  wholly  a  myth,  a  beautiful  city  made 
out  of  nothing  and  belonging  nowhere,  a  living  lie — if 
lies  live — for  two  and  a  half  centuries,  as  all  that  time  all 
geographers  charted  it  and  all  scholars  accredited  it. 

In  Hakluyt's  edition  of  Peter  Martyr,  1587,  the  great 


44  RETROSPECTION 

northwest  is  an  unexplored  blank,  with  a  mar  dulce  at 
latitude  60°,  about  midway  of  the  continent,  California  is 
a  peninsula,  Quivira  is  on  the  coast  at  about  latitude  40°, 
while  a  great  lake  stands  over  the  name  New  Mexico.  The 
coast  of  Cathay  is  about  fifty  degrees  west  of  Drake's  Nova 
Albion. 

So  the  magic  ball  of  mystery  was  kept  rolling  about 
upon  the  land  as  on  the  sea,  and  the  cosmographers  were 
not  up  to  date  who  had  not  on  their  maps  a  fine  broad 
channel  cut  through  the  continent  in  its  widast  part,  and 
an  Anian  regnum,  a  Quivira  regnum,  and  a  Tolm  regnum. 

If  so  much  was  to  be  made  out  of  the  travels  through 
the  waste  places  by  land,  how  much  more  might  those  who 
first  sailed  along  the  borders  of  the  two  Americas  let  fly 
their  imagination  over  the  land  and  write  as  the  spirit 
dictated.  Wherefore  many  were  the  apocryphal  voyages 
to  the  northwest  and  through  the  strait  of  Anian,  and 
many  were  the  bungling  falsehoods  told,  until  when  the 
truth  began  to  appear  the  Northern  Mystery  was  more 
mysterious  than  ever. 

A  dozen  navigators  testified  as  to  the  mythical  strait; 
some  had  seen  it,  some  had  seen  those  who  had  seen  it, 
some  had  sailed  through  it,  and  the  king  of  Spain  took 
steps  to  fortify  it.  Drake  and  Cavendish  heard  of  a  large 
inland  sea  in  the  north ;  Pedro  Menendez  saw  not  only  the 
strait  but  a  great  city  beside  it;  Maldonado  sailed  on  it 
through  the  continent,  and  back,  both  ways.  The  libraries 
became  filled  with  such  reports,  and  the  most  famous 
cosmographers  always  threw  into  their  maps  a  plentiful 
supply  of  conjectural  geography. 

The  subject  again  presents  itself  in  the  last  chapter 
of  this  volume. 

Next  to  send  forth  a  written  report  on  the  coast  of 
California  after  Cabrillo's  survey  to  San  Diego  and  the 
islands  in  1542  was  Francis  Drake's  chaplain,  Fletcher, 
ready  to  turn  his  master's  piracies  into  picnics,  or  sail  his 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  UNTENANTED  PLAINS  45 

ships  through  the  Rocky  mountains,  at  the  cavalier's  good 
pleasure. 

It  was  a  day  long  to  be  remembered  when  Drake 
beached  his  vessel  in  the  cove  above  the  Golden  Gate,  and 
Fletcher  seated  himself  on  the  shore,  fancy  free,  to  write 
up  his  notes.  As  well  make  a  good  story,  one  that  will 
please  both  Sir  Drake  and  his  gracious  queen,  Elizabeth. 

So  here  it  goes. 

While  thus  engaged  "came  a  man  of  large  body  and 
goodly  aspect  bearing  the  Septer  or  royal  mace  .  .  . 
whereupon  hanged  two  crowns,  a  bigger  and  a  lesser,  with 
three  chaines  of  a  marvellous  length.  There  is  no  part 
of  earth  here  wherein  there  is  not  gold  and  silver.  Infinite 
was  the  company  of  very  large  and  fat  Deere  which  there 
we  saw  by  thousands,  besides  a  multitude  of  a  strange  kind 
of  Conies,  his  tayle  like  the  tayle  of  a  Rat." 

The  natives  received  the  words  of  salvation  with  rap- 
ture, listening  attentively  to  the  reading  of  the  scriptures, 
and  when  the  strangers  took  their  leave  "with  sighs  and 
sorrowings,  with  heavy  hearts  and  grived  minds  they 
poured  out  wofull  complaints  and  moanes  with  bitter 
teares  and  wringing  of  their  hands,  tormenting  them- 
selves. ' ' 

So  like  the  California  Digger,  the  lowest  in  the  scale 
of  humanity,  eaters  of  mussels  and  grasshoppers,  neither 
gold  nor  ground-squirrels  being  within  many  miles  of 
them.  Then  as  to  the  language,  or  of  such  speech  as  these 
clods  were  capable,  the  Reverend  Fletcher  forgets  to  men- 
tion how  he  managed  it. 

Some  excuse  was  now  wanting  for  discontinuing  the 
voyage  of  discovery  farther  north,  for  as  there  were  no 
treasure  ships  to  capture  in  that  vicinity,  a  change  in  the 
ship's  course  might  prove  advisable.  Something  startling 
to  satisfy  the  queen  must  be  found.  To  be  frozen  up 
would  do — as  they  were  sailing  north,  and  no  one  knew 
that  the  icebergs  of  Alaska  did  not  extend  south  to  Cali- 
fornia in  midsummer.  And  once  free,  the  captain  might 


46  RETROSPECTION 

return  to  England  through  the  strait  of  Anian, — Mr. 
Fletcher  could  easily  make  it  read  correctly  in  the  narra- 
tive— or  take  a  junketing  trip  around  the  world,  as  he 
should  elect.  Whereupon  the  worthy  chaplain  continues. 
They  "used  to  come  shivering  to  us  in  their  warm  furres 
crowding  close  together  body  to  body,  to  receive  heate  one 
of  another.  Oh!  how  unhandsome  and  deformed  appeared 
the  face  of  the  earth  it  eelfe."  Having  set  sail,  the  ice  so 
covered  the  ropes  and  clung  to  the  rigging  that  the  sailors 
could  not  navigate  the  ship.  Hence  the  captain  was 
actually  compelled  to  turn  back  and  watch  the  Manila 
galleon  on  its  way  to  Acapulco. 

Other  navigators  following  in  Drake's  tracks  to  the 
coast  of  California  passed  on  and  spoke  to  the  Chinooks 
of  the  Columbians  and  the  Aleuts  of  the  Hyperboreans, 
but  none  of  them  ventured  inland. 

Therefore  two  and  a  half  centuries  after  the  coming  of 
Cortes  to  Mexico  the  vast  northern  interior  slept  on  in 
silence,  unknowing  and  unknown,  all  without  a  mystery  to 
those  within,  all  within  a  mystery  to  those  without. 

Cardenas,  one  of  Coronado's  captains,  in  1540  saw  the 
Moqui  towns  in  latitude  36',  and  the  grand  canon  of  the 
Colorado,  while  another  of  his  officers  found  the  mouth  of 
the  river  and  ascended  the  stream  nearly  to  the  Gila. 

Juan  de  Onate  was  on  the  Colorado  in  1604,  fifty 
years  before  the  -organization  of  the  Hudson  Bay  com- 
pany, more  than  fifty  years  before  either  Pere  Marquette 
or  La  Salle  were  in  the  Mississippi  valley,  and  188  years 
before  Alexander  Mackenzie  ascended  Peace  river. 

All  this  time  the  great  interior  Plains  of  North  Amer- 
ica, prairie  mountains  and  desert,  particularly  such  parts 
as  are  now  of  the  United  States,  remained  if  not  unknown 
to  at  least  untenanted  by  civilization. 

We  call  them  untenanted;  civilization  so  calls  them, 
because  in  our  arrogance  we  hold  all  the  works  of  crea- 
tion as  nothing  beside  the  white  man.  As  nothing  this 


MYSTERY  OP  THE  UNTENANTED  PLAINS  ,47 

great  continental  amphitheatre,  and  the  amphitheatre  of 
ocean  beyond,  silent,  mysterious,  the  one  as  the  other,  yet 
full  to  the  brim  of  nature's  handiwork,  musical  with  the 
voices  of  nature,  beings  reveling  in  the  joys  of  life,  revel- 
ing in  the  jaws  of  death,  yet  empty,  we  say,  because  the 
rapacious  European  man  is  not  there  to  kill  and  eat,  or 
to  destroy.  A  waste  of  land  and  water,  and  all  that 
therein  is,  if  peradventure  the  white  man  cannot  use  it  all. 

There  they  were  these  few  short  centuries  ago,  as 
nature  made  them.  Nature,  who  made  us  all,  and  who 
filled  the  earth  and  sea  with  living  things  to  kill  and  eat 
each  O'ther,  and  the  European  to  kill  and  eat  all.  This  we 
know  because  it  is  so,  and  because  the  white  man,  having 
no  master  on  this  earth,  must  incontinently  fall  to  and 
master  and  kill  each  other. 

Were  it  not  for  this  bad  habit  which  men  have  of 
domestic  destruction,  a  habit  still  in  vogue  among  nations 
of  the  foremost  civilization,  such  as  was  practised  in  the 
primitive  days  of  savagism,  these  Plains  might  thousands 
of  years  ago  have  been  stocked  with  humanity  thicker 
than  Europe  contains,  while  if  the  Europeans,  with  civil- 
ization and  Christianity,  had  become  what  some  would 
consider  reasonable,  and  stopped  hacking  each  other  in 
pieces  while  inventing  machinery  for  expediting  neigh- 
borly slaughter,  many  additions  would  ere  this  have  had 
to  be  built  out  into  the  sea  to  give  the  people  standing 
room,  which  would  have  been  harder  work  and  not  half 
so  pleasant  as  killing. 

Strange  that  man  should  be  the  only  animal  that  makes 
war  upon  its  kind.  Had  the  savages  of  North  America 
been  content  to  live  as  the  buffaloes  live,  they  might  have 
covered  these  Plains  as  the  buffaloes  covered  them;  in 
which  case  again  there  would  have  been  too  many  men  in 
the  world,  which  would  have  made  the  task  of  their  ex- 
termination more  difficult,  if  indeed  the  Europeans  them- 
selves had  not  been  long  since  exterminated  by  the  abor- 
iginal Americans. 


48  RETROSPECTION 

Great  was  the  waste  of  the  buffalo,  the  grandest  animal 
of  the  Plains,  having  been  for  ages  the  food  and  clothing, 
the  providence  and  protection  of  millions  of  humanity, 
serving  God  also  in  feeding  the  hungry  wolf  and  the 
lonely  catamount.  Of  the  sixty  millions  of  this  noble  beast 
which  were  rollicking  over  the  prairie  when  the  white  man 
came  there  were  scarcely  six  hundred  living  at  the  end  of 
the  century.  Under  new  conditions  the  number  is  now 
slowly  increasing. 

Thus  the  Plains  were  an  enchanted  land,  a  land  of  mys- 
tery and  romance,  full  of  toil  and  adventure,  full  of  life 
and  death,  the  perils  of  the  wilderness  only  adding  to  its 
charm. 

Untenanted.  No  one  there,  no  person  and  no  thing  that 
counts.  Myriads  of  wild  beasts  were  on  the  land,  and 
birds  and  fishes  in  the  air  and  water.  Many  bands  of  wild 
men  roamed  hither  and  thither,  all  rejoicing  in  life,  all 
snarling  in  death,  each  striving  to  escape  destruction  while 
destroying  the  others. 

The  savages  are  silent  in  their  wars  as  in  other  things, 
no  noise  of  guns  or  clash  of  steel,  but  only  the  death- 
rattle  and  scalp-halloo.  Ages  upon  ages,  like  the  fishes 
in  the  sea,  they  rollicked  along,  happy  in  multiplying  their 
kind  for  others  of  their  kind  to  destroy. 

Useless  asking  whence  they  came  and  when;  useless 
asking  why  they  kill;  they  were  made  so,  as  white  men 
are  so  made.  And  as  for  age,  they  have  been  there  ten 
hundred  or  ten  million  years;  they  may  have  been  there 
always,  whatever  that  should  signify.  Of  their  death  we 
can  predict  with  some  certainty,  for  civilization  blasts 
savagism ;  the  two  cannot  breathe  the  same  air. 

Your  true  savage  is  not  a  subject  for  civilization. 
Once  a  savage  he  is  always  a  savage.  A  veneer  of  culture 
does  not  constitute  civilization.  Centuries  of  use  may  im- 
prove his  skill  with  the  weapons  of  his  ancestors,  but  he 
invents  no  new  weapon.  He  carries  the  same  spear,  the 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  UNTENANTED  PLAINS  49 

same  bow  and  arrow,  the  same  tomahawk  and  knife  that 
the  ancient  warriors  of  his  people  carried  a  thousand  years 
ago,  though  iron  may  have  taken  the  place  of  flint.  The 
invention  of  a  new  instrument  or  agency  when  it  comes 
must  come  as  the  precursor  or  product  of  civilization,  which 
springs  from  another  and  a  different  germ  dropped  into 
the  same  or  other  soil,  a  germ  instinct  with  the  element  of 
self-development. 

There  is  a  large  unoccupied  waste  of  water  in  the  south 
Pacific  where  might  be  placed  a  continent  twice  as  large 
as  South  America  and  leave  around  it  ample  space  for  nav- 
igation. Doubtless  land  stood  there  once  and  may  do  so 
again.  The  place  is  now  used  to  grow  little  fish  for  the 
big  fish  to  eat. 

Whence  it  appears  that  the  sea  was  not  made  for  man 
but  for  fishes,  of  which  it  keeps  fairly  full  notwithstand- 
ing the  insatiate  feedings  one  upon  another.  Then  were 
the  savages  made  for  naught,  and  the  wild  beasts  in  their 
devourings,  or  only  to  be  supplanted  by  creatures  with  a 
will  and  capacity  for  still  greater  devourings?  And  this 
civilized  creature  who  has  tamed  the  Plains,  will  he  some 
time  tame  the  sea,  and  then  on  sea  and  land  continue  for- 
ever his  self -spoliation  and  beastly  devourings? 

We  cannot  clear  the  ocean  of  its  inhabitants  as  we  have 
cleared  the  Plains,  else  we  would;  we  would  clear  off  and 
appropriate  the  sun  and  moon  and  stars  if  we  were  able; 
there  is  no  limit  to  our  greed. 

Very  like  the  ocean  were  the  treeless  rolling  lands  of  the 
fertile  prairies,  with  their  coarse  grain  feeding  countless 
beasts  to  be  served  as  food  to  other  countless  beasts.  Then 
come  the  mountains,  as  one  goes  west,  and  after  them 
the  desert,  then  other  mountains  and  deserts  and  valleys. 

East  of  the  continental  axis  the  low  lying  prairies  roll 
eastward  from  its  feet  a  thousand  miles  to  the  waters  of 
the  Mississippi  system,  whose  fall  is  less  than  1600  feet  in 
their  sluggish  flow  of  over  3000  miles,  the  fertile  soil  capa- 


50  RETROSPECTION 

ble  of  feeding  all  Europe.  On  the  western  side  the  Pacific 
highlands,  swells  of  table-lands  and  deserts,  rich  in  miner- 
als and  fertile  enough  for  growing  food  with  the  artificial 
application  of  water. 

There  were  in  the  southwest  the  fierce  Apaches,  who 
under  a  famous  chief  brought  formidable  forces  into  the 
field;  hundreds  of  tribes  of  nomadic  Algonquins,  chasing 
their  perpetual  enemies  the  Sioux,  Foxes,  and  Iroquois 
around  the  great  lakes;  the  Cheyennes  and  Blackfeet 
watching  from  their  retreats  in  the  mountains  and  along 
the  streams  the  long  line  of  emigrants  in  their  toilsome 
journey;  many  there  were  like  the  Missouri,  the  Iowa,  the 
Kansas,  the  Omahas,  the  Dakotas  who  gave  their  names 
to  the  white  man's  towns  and  states;  then  the  Crows,  Utes, 
and  Shoshones  farther  wrest. 

Down  from  the  far  northeast  many  thousand  moons 
ago  came  a  great  people,  perhaps  from  somewhere,  say  the 
tower  of  Babel,  by  way  of  northern  Europe  to  Iceland, 
Greenland,  and  Labrador,  thence  southwest  through  the 
valley  of  the  Ohio  and  on  to  the  New  Mexico  and  to  old 
Mexico,  a  thousand  year  pilgrimage,  perhaps,  leaving  on 
the  way  mounds  of  various  devices  filled  with  arrow-heads 
and  other  implements,  and  on  which  great  trees  are  grow- 
ing; also  Casas  Grandes,  and  towns  and  tenements  of 
sun-dried  brick,  and  other  evidences  of  their  former  pres- 
ence 

Gradually  during  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth 
century  the  Northern  Mystery  began  to  disappear,  not  by 
inroads  from  the  sea  but  from  land  excursions  along  the 
coast,  thus  making  way  for  the  expulsion  of  the  greater 
Mystery  of  the  Plains. 

.For  example,  Pere  Marquette  passing  down  the  Missis- 
sippi in  1673  noted  the  mouth  of  the  Missouri,  and  wrote, 
"Through  this  I  hope  to  reach  the  gulf  of  California,  and 
thence  the  East  Indies."  Baron  la  Hontan,  in  the  account 
of  his  famous  imaginary  journey  to  the  far  west  in  1688, 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  UNTENANTED  PLAINS  51 

was  obliged  to  retain  the  myth  of  the  Northern  Mystery 
with  its  Anian  strait  and  flitting  Quivira,  though  he  had 
myths  enough  of  his  own  at  hand  for  substitution  had  he 
so  desired.  For  only  twenty -six  years  prior  to  the  baron's 
alleged  journey  Governor  Diego  de  Penalosa  had  made  a 
trip  to  New  Mexico  in  which  he  claimed  to  have  reached 
the  original  Quivira  somewhere  to  the  northeast  of 
Santa  Fe. 

Padre  Kino  in  his  pious  labors  in  Pimeria  Alta  became 
deeply  interested  in  the  Northern  Mystery.  With  Captain 
Mange  he  visited  the  Gila  and  Colorado,  and  two  years 
later,  in  1701,  stood  with  Salvatierra  on  the  mainland  shore 
of  the  upper  gulf,  in  latitude  31°  or  32°  still  discussing 
the  questions  whether  or  not  California  was  an  island. 

So  late  as  1768  Jefferys  riddles  his  map  of  the  northern 
part  of  North  America  with  bays  and  straits,  making  of 
the  country  more  than  half  water.  Fuca  strait  is  a 
broad  waterway  extending  from  the  ocean  to  Hudson 
bay ;  another  strait  lies  to  the  north  of  it,  widened  in  the 
middle  by  the  lake  de  Fonte.  Anian  and  Quivira  are 
given,  as  well  as  "Sierras  Nevadas,  1542,"  "new  Albion," 
and  "Mountains  of  Bright  Stones." 

Entrances  to  this  inland  amphitheatre  on  every  side 
were  provided  by  nature.  Nor  were  the  Plains  without 
their  pathways.  Roads  there  were,  thousands  of  them 
thousands  of  years  old,  each  significant  of  something, 
but  to  be  read  only  by  the  initiated,  roads  along  the  rivers 
or  to  and  from  watering  places,  through  mountain  gate- 
ways and  over  sandy  wastes;  roads  cut  broad  and  deep 
into  the  tough  earth  or  obliterated  here  and  there  by  action 
of  the  elements.  These  tracks  the  traveller  could  find  and 
follow  for  half  his  way  across  the  continent. 

Trappers  and  fur-hunters  were  the  first  of  European 
origin  to  break  the  spell;  after  them  at  intervals  came 
the  emigrant,  with  his  long  lines  of  ox-teams  and  hooded 
wagons,  passing  on  to  the  western  beyond,  leaving  the  land 


52  RETROSPECTION 

in  the  same  primeval  stillness  in  which  he  had  found  it. 
Then  came  the  settler,  decades  after  it  may  be,  and  broke 
that  stillness  forever. 

When  the  great  fur  monopolies  of  New  France  fell  in 
pieces  private  adventurers  skirted  the  great  lakes  and 
percolated  southward  through  the  mountains.  From  the 
Montreal  fair  every  summer  many  young  men,  fascinated 
by  forest  life,  returned  with  the  savages  to  their  distant 
homes  in  the  mountains  or  on  the  plains,  and  became 
almost  as  wild  as  their  native  associates,  hunting,  trapping, 
paddling  canoes  and  roaming  the  woods.  Thus  came  to 
the  front  the  class  of  voyageurs  and  coureurs  des  bois 
which  became  a  fur-hunting  feature  of  the  century. 

Movements  in  the  fur  trade  were  made  in  1762  at  New 
Orleans  by  Laclede,  Maxan  and  company  and  at  St.  Louis 
by  Auguste  and  Pierre  Chouteau.  Their  operations 
carried  them  northward  toward  Michilimackinac  rather 
than  westward  beyond  the  Missouri.  The  Northwest  com- 
pany ruled  in  state  at  Fort  William,  on  Lake  Superior; 
their  rivals  were  the  Hudson  Bay  company  in  the  north 
and  northwest  rather  than  the  French  in  the  south. 

Independence  and  St.  Joseph  sent  American  trappers 
up  the  Missouri  and  into  Oregon,  comparatively  few  of 
them  finding  their  way  along  the  Platte  and  into  Utah  and 
the  great  desert.  The  Missouri  Fur  company  operated 
nearer  home,  chiefly  in  the  Rocky  mountains.  As  John 
Jacob  Astor  failed  to  carry  out  his  project  of  a  line  of 
forts  to  the  Pacific,  the  traffic  of  the  intermediate  plains 
was  less  in  consequence,  and  left  more  to  individual  opera- 
tors, as  Ashly,  Sublette,  James  Bridger,  and  Jedediah 
Smith,  the  last  named  later  conspicuous  in  the  Santa  Fe 
trade.  Operating  in  the  Colorado  basin  at  one  time  were 
James  P.  Beckworth  and  Bill  Williams,  trappers  and  ex- 
plorers. 

Nothing  was  more  significant  of  the  primitive  condi- 
tion of  the  Plains  so  late  as  1832  than  such  expeditions, 
half  military  and  half  commercial,  as  those  of  Major 


MYSTERY  OF  THE  UNTENANTED  PLAINS    53 

Pilcher  and  Captain  Bonneville.  Pilcher's  adventures  took 
him  to  the  upper  Colorado ;  thence  he  trapped  northward 
to  Fort  Colville,  and  after  an  absence  of  two  years  returned 
by  way  of  the  Athabasca,  suffering  severely  meanwhile  from 
famine  and  hostile  natives. 

Captain  Bonneville  with  a  force  of  110  men  visited 
Utah,  Nevada,  and  Oregon,  sending  his  guide,  Walker,  with 
a  division  over  the  Sierra  into  California.  So  strong  was 
the  opposition  he  encountered  in  the  Hudson  Bay  com- 
pany and  others,  and  being  inexperienced  in  both  hunting 
and  trading,  the  enterprise  ended  in  failure.  Another 
larger  undertaking  meeting  with  a  similar  result  was  that 
of  Captain  Wyeth.  Thus  these  expeditions  by  their  wide 
attempts  and  failures  tended  to  discourage  enterprise  in 
that  quarter  and  lock  up  the  interior  from  development 
for  some  time  longer. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MIGRATIONS   AND    DEVELOPMENT 

HE  New  England  colonists  were  a  thrifty  people. 
J  They  preferred  to  labor  with  their  hands  rather  than 
keep  others  to  do  it  for  them.  The  natives  were  averse 
to  labor;  the  colonists  had  no  desire  to  fight  them;  they 
wanted  only  that  they  should  go  farther  back  into  the 
woods  and  keep  out  of  the  way.  They  did  not  care  to 
engage  them  in  fur-hunting,  as  in  Canada,  nor  to  employ 
them  on  plantations,  as  in  Mexico.  There  were  a  few 
negro  slaves  at  one  time  scattered  among  them,  but  human 
slavery  was  an  institution  that  did  not  appeal  to  them. 
They  were  an  agricultural  people  and  preferred  farming 
their  lands  in  a  moderate  way  themselves;  when  they  re- 
quired help  they  called  in  a  neighbor,  and  it  was  help,  not 
servitude,  that  rendered  the  assistance.  The  hired  man 
sat  at  the  table  with  them,  and  it  may  be  married  the 
daughter. 

Children  came  to  them;  they  learned  to  love  their  New 
England  home;  they  loved  their  freedom  and  enjoyed  the 
exercise  on  their  own  behalf  of  the  persecutions  from  which 
they  had  fled. 

This  for  a  time.  Then  as  they  cleared  away  the  trees 
and  laid  bare  the  scanty  soil,  the  stones  grew  heavier  as 
they  gathered  them  for  fencing,  and  their  minds  reverted 
to  the  rich  lands  to  the  westward  where  their  toil  should 
secure  better  results. 

In  Virginia  it  was  different;  the  gentlemen  planters 
were  not  accustomed  to  manual  labor.  Their  sons  regarded 
work  as  beneath  them,  and  it  was  left  to  imported  African 

54 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  55 

slaves  and  the  poor  white  trash  who  owned  no  land,  which 
rendered  labor  still  more  degrading.  Slavery  flourished; 
larger  plantations  were  wanted  for  cotton,  and  the  tobacco 
plant  soon  exhausted  the  soil ;  so  the  southern  colonists  also 
turned  their  eyes  westward,  thinking  all  the  while  how 
best  to  rid  the  land  of  the  red  man. 

Meanwhile  society  in  the  south  became  quite  aristo- 
cratic; the  planters  built  sumptuous  homes,  and  lived 
regally,  returns  from  their  cotton  and  tobacco  bringing 
them  all  the  requirements  of  pomp  and  luxury.  They 
arrayed  themselves  in  the  paraphernalia  of  wealth,  the 
men  in  three-cornered  hats,  velvet  waistcoats,  and  knee 
breeches,  the  women  in  stiff  brocades,  hoop  skirts,  feathers, 
and  furbelows. 

Had  the  Mayflower  pilgrims  made  their  settlement  at 
Jamestown,  and  had  the  gentlemen  adventurers  from  Eng- 
land landed  on  Plymouth  rock,  history  would  have  a  dif- 
ferent tale  to  tell. 

Independence  secured,  the  birth  of  a  new  nation  ac- 
complished, and  the  active  mind  of  the  American  people 
took  a  look  around  to  see  what  next  should  be  done.  The 
view  was  dim  from  the  vastness  of  its  surroundings.  New 
conditions  brought  new  trains  of  thought.  Statesmen  and 
business  men  were  alike  perplexed.  There  was  practically 
no  currency  in  the  country,  no  proper  measure  of  values, 
and  no  way  of  determining  what  things  were  worth  even 
if  money  had  been  plentiful.  On  one  side  of  the  ocean 
were  the  old  homes  of  the  colonists,  the  land  of  their  fore- 
fathers, overcrowded  with  people,  the  poor  hustled  aside 
by  the  rich,  the  weak  preyed  upon  by  the  strong.  On  the 
other  side  were  lands  of  limitless  vistas,  all  their  own, 
dropped  down  upon  them  as  from  the  sky. 

A  spirit  of  conservatism  fell  upon  them,  not  quite 
natural  and  by  no  means  enduring.  They  were  timid  yet 
curious.  Like  a  maiden  on  the  verge  of  matrimony  they 
were  fascinated  by  the  unknown  and  yet  repelled  by  the 


56  RETROSPECTION 

inevitable.  They  thought  of  where  they  might  go  and 
what  they  might  do ;  they  thought  of  the  application  of  in- 
dustry to  their  wild  domain,  of  farms  and  factories,  of  un- 
built cities  supplanting  transitory  wigwams. 

Small  bands  of  neighbors  crossed  the  Alleghanies  and 
penetrated  north  and  south  and  w«st.  The  great  valley  of 
the  Ohio,  the  first  New  "World  tribute  won  from  France, 
was  as  yet  but  little  known,  and  the  wooded  hills  and  rich 
valley  lands  compelled  their  scrutiny. 

Beyond  the  Mississippi  the  government  sent  out  ex- 
peditions to  see  and  report  what  this  Louisiana  land  was 
like, — Lewis  and  Clarke,  and  Long,  and  Pike.  The  border 
lines  of  Mexico  were  vague;  already  her  hold  on  Texas 
was  weakening.  On  the  Pacific,  the  forty-second  parallel 
should  be  her  limit.  The  government  explorers  saw  much, 
but  there  was  more  which  they  did  not  see. 

These  new  Americans  had  their  work  before  them; 
they  had  an  empire  to  build  and  they  must  be  about  it. 
Land  was  their  basis  of  economic  prosperity.  In  the  old 
country  land  was  limited  and  difficult  for  the  poor  man 
to  obtain,  but  here  it  was  almost  free.  Nothing  so  valu- 
able and  yet  nothing  so  cheap.  The  old  ideals  must  be 
readjusted  to  fit  new  conditions.  The  hesitancy,  which 
indeed  was  nothing  more  than  proper  reflection,  soon 
passed  away  as  potential  paths  of  prosperity  appeared  lead- 
ing westward. 

On  one  side  was  the  old  land  and  the  old  life,  on  the 
other  an  unexplored  world  of  romance.  During  the  first 
hundred  years  of  colonial  occupation  little  attention  was 
given  to  metes  and  bounds.  There  was  land  enough  for 
all.  The  New  Englanders  were  restless.  The  Dutch  at 
New  Netherland  had  only  to  sail  up  their  beautiful  Hud- 
son to  a  charming  country  beyond.  The  Friends  were 
quite  content  with  the  allotments  of  their  great  chief, 
while  the  Virginians,  the  most  migratory  of  all  the  colon- 
ists, could  drop  down  into  the  Oarolinas  should  they  de- 
sire a  change. 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  57 

As  time  passed  by  many  began  to  consider  yet  more 
earnestly  their  limitations  on  the  coast,  and  to  think  more 
of  the  rich  valley  of  the  Ohio  which  still  served  the  purpose 
only  of  a  French  and  Indian  hunting  ground,  having  so 
remained  since  the  fall  of  France  in  America,  which  gave 
England  the  entire  country  back  to  the  Mississippi.  The 
several  colonies  were  quite  ready  to  take  possession  of 
these  newly  acquired  lands,  since  some  one  must  own  them, 
and  parcel  them  out  among  themselves,  giving  to  each  a 
strip  westward  equal  in  width  to  its  ocean  frontage.  As 
Massachusetts  then  comprised  the  entire  northern  end  of 
New  England  abutting  on  the  province  of  Quebec,  created 
by  the  English  king  for  the  occupation  of  his  new  French 
subjects,  the  Saint  Lawrence  and  the  lakes  still  interven- 
ing, she  was  obliged  to  make  the  Detroit  river  the  initial 
point  of  her  western  possessions,  carrying  the  northern 
boundary  line  up  to  the  middle  of  Lake  Michigan. 

Connecticut  came  next  with  a  claim  covering  parts  of 
what  are  now  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  Then  followed 
Virginia  marking  out  a  large  area  which  included  Ken- 
tucky. In  like  manner  the  Carolinas  claimed  Tennessee 
and  Georgia,  all  that  was  left  down  to  Florida,  which  was 
still  occupied  by  the  Spaniards.  After  the  organization 
of  the  federal  union  the  boundaries  of  the  several  states 
were  defined,  and  all  the  surplus  territories  heretofore 
claimed  by  them  were  ceded  to  the  United  States,  thus 
becoming  federal  domain. 

It  was  natural  enough  that  in  their  migrations  west- 
ward the  inhabitants  of  the  original  states  should  keep  for 
the  most  part  each  along  its  own  lines  of  latitude,  climate 
and  other  conditions  being  more  like  those  of  their  own 
homes  than  were  to  be  found  north  or  south  of  those  lines. 
Thus  it  was  that  the  northern  part  of  the  Ohio  valley  was 
settled  largely  from  New  England.  Indiana  was  tinc- 
tured with  driftings  upward  from  the  south,  which 
indications  were  yet  more  pronounced  in  Illinois,  though 


58  RETROSPECTION 

cotton  tobacco  and  slavery  never  flourished  in  the  lake 
states. 

Westward  migration  thus  made  its  first  halt  in  the 
valley  of  the  Ohio,  where  it  rested  half  a  century.  Be- 
yond the  Mississippi  another  half  century  was  occupied  in 
planting  settlements  and  making  states  in  the  region  ex- 
tending back  to  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  in  looking  after 
California  and  her  gold. 

With  the  acquisition  and  occupation  of  the  Mississippi 
valley  the  feeling  prevailed  that  the  limit  had  been 
reached.  The  Alleghanies  and  the  great  lakes  were  at 
first  regarded  the  proper  and  natural  western  boundary, 
between  which  and  the  Atlantic  was  ample  room  for  the 
expansion  of  a  great  nation.  Compared  with  European 
powers  its  area  was  larger  than  the  largest  of  all  save 
Russia,  whose  vast  holdings  were  an  element  of  weakness 
rather  than  strength.  Fortunately  the  Americans  did  not 
realize  all  that  was  before  them,  else  they  might  have 
shrunk  from  responsibilities  to  which  they  were  not  yet 
accustomed.  But  human  progress  at  best  is  but  a  blind 
stumble  forward;  we  work  for  the  present  while  building 
for  the  future.  Every  decade  of  the  century  has  its  own 
period  of  transition,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  say  which  is  the 
most  important. 

A  Yankee  schoolmaster,  in  1792,  invented  a  machine 
to  pick  the  seeds  from  cotton,  and  Eli  Whitney's  cotton 
gin  doubled  the  value  and  importance  twice  over  of  half 
the  nation's  greatest  industry. 

Robert  Fulton,  in  1807,  attached  to  the  sides  of  his 
Hudson  river  boat  paddle-wheels  driven  by  steam,  and 
soon  on  all  the  great  rivers  and  lakes  of  the  United  States 
were  steamboats,  stirring  up  traffic  and  carrying  civiliza- 
tion to  remote  regions.  In  1819  the  steamer  Savannah 
crossed  the  Atlantic,  and  behold!  a  hundred  years  later 
a  hundred  king's  palaces  upon  the  water,  two  hundred 
mighty  vessels  of  war,  a  thousand  transportation  ships,  all 


59 

threading  the  paths  of  ocean  as  if  following  the  streets  of 
a  city. 

In  1831  cars  were  drawn  by  a  locomotive  over  fifteen 
miles  of  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  railroad.  At  this  time 
there  were  in  all,  horse  and  steam,  thirty-two  miles  of 
railroad  in  the  United  States ;  three  quarters  of  a  century 
later,  there  were  of  horse,  steam,  and  electric  roads  more 
than  250,000  miles. 

In  1837  Samuel  Morse  came  forward  with  his  tele- 
graph, which  was  the  beginning,  after  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin's kite-flying,  of  applied  electricity,  which  led  to  those 
wonderful  discoveries  under  Edison.  Then,  just  where 
the  century  hinges,  within  little  more  than  a  brief  decade, 
we  capture  California,  scoop  up  millions  of  gold,  fight  to 
a  finish  a  war  for  the  Union,  giving  up  thereto  a  million  of 
the  finest  young  men  north  and  south  that  ever  lived, 
emancipated  and  enfranchised  four  millions  of  slaves, 
practically  placed  their  masters  in  subjection  to  them, 

and  then !  Then  what?  A  carnival  of  crime,  and 

which  alas!  is  not  yet  ended. 

Looking  back  over  the  first  half  of  the  century  under 
consideration  times  may  seem  dull,  methods  crude,  and 
progress  slow.  But  in  truth,  great  as  were  the  works  of 
the  second  half,  the  works  of  the  first  half  were  relatively 
greater.  For  it  was  then  that  was  conceived  and  brought 
forth  by  the  American  people  certain  industrial  achieve- 
ments, to  say  nothing  of  politics  and  society,  which  ex- 
erted a  powerful  influence  upon  the  advancement  of  the 
country  in  peace  and  prosperity,  and  which,  considering 
the  time  and  place,  and  the  result  of  human  effort  with 
the  resources  at  command,  may  be  likened  to  work  on-  the 
pyramids  of  Egypt  or  the  great  wall  of  China.  These 
enterprises  were  the  construction  during  the  years  1806 
to  1838,  of  a  national  turnpike  834  miles  in  length,  from 
Fort  Cumberland  on  the  Potomac  through  Ohio,  Indiana, 
and  Illinois  to  Jefferson  city,  Missouri;  the  Erie  canal,  in 
1817-25,  from  the  Hudson  river  to  Lake  Erie;  with  other 


60  RETROSPECTION 

important  toll  roads  and  canals,  and  the  opening  of  rivers 
and  lakes  to  steam  navigation. 

An  important  part  in  the  many  and  widespread  mi- 
grations was  played  by  these  and  other  historic  highways, 
the  wagon-roads  and  canals  through  and  around  the  Ap- 
palachian range,  as  the  Braddock  road  from  the  Potomac 
to  the  Monongahela,  which  for  a  time  was  the  only  high- 
way into  the  upper  Ohio  country,  and  the  most  important 
thoroughfare  into  the  west. 

Soon  after  the  revolutionary  war  the  Pennsylvania  state 
wagon-road,  known  as  the  old  Glade  road,  was  built  through 
the  glades  of  Pennsylvania,  changing  Fort  Duquesne  to 
Fort  Pitt,  and  becoming  an  important  factor  in  the  ex- 
pansive movement  that  followed. 

The  widening  of  the  Delaware  Nemacolin's  path  by 
Washington  in  1754  exercised  a  marked  influence  on  what 
followed.  Boone's  wilderness  road  to  Kentucky  from 
Virginia  through  Cumberland  gap  was  one  of  the  most 
difficult  to  achieve  of  any,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most 
important,  as  it  opened  to  the  Atlantic  seaboard  the  great 
west  and  made  possible  the  settling  of  Kentucky.  The 
social  movement  thus  accomplished  was  one  of  the  marvels 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Though  for  the  most  part  long  since  forgotten  the 
military  roads  of  the  Mississippi  basin  after  serving  their 
purpose  in  the  conquest  of  the  old  northwest  proved  im- 
portant in  the  subsequent  settlement  of  the  country. 

An  extraordinary  spasm  of  emigration,  brief  but  power- 
ful, broke  out  just  prior  to  the  purchase  of  Louisiana, 
owing  to  the  brilliant  prospects  in  that  region  incident  to 
the  close  of  the  Indian  wars  and  the  possible  acquisition  of 
a  foothold  in  that  country  by  the  United  States. 

A  commerce  of  the  prairies  with  Mexico  set  in  over 
the  Santa  Fe  trail  while  Santa  Fe  was  yet  in  Mexico. 

Already  at  the  opening  year  of  the  century  the  water- 
ways of  westward  expansion  had  been  sought  out  and 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  61 

proved,  and  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi,  and  the  Missouri 
became  the  great  highways  of  emigration.  Then  came  the 
great  canals,  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Ohio,  the  Pennsyl- 
vania and  the  Erie.  And  then  the  Cumberland  turnpike, 
the  first  national  road,  using  in  its  construction  whatever 
was  available  from  the  Washington  and  Braddock  roads, 
and  carrying  into  the  west  when  completed  thousands  of 
aspirants  for  greater  things  with  all  their  wealth  of  in- 
tellect, energy,  and  material  effects. 

The  Cumberland  national  road  was  constructed  by 
clearing  of  trees  a  space  sixty  feet  wide,  in  the  middle 
of  which  thirty  feet  were  leveled,  and  in  the  middle  of 
the  thirty  feet  a  strip  twenty  feet  wide  was  overlaid  with 
crushed  stone  eighteen  inches  thick  in  the  centre,  sloping 
to  twelve  inches  on  either  side.  The  largest  pieces  of  the 
broken  stone  were  seven  inches  in  diameter  for  the  bottom 
and  three  inches  at  the  top.  Tolls  were  collected  over  the 
greater  part  of  the  road. 

Ninety  and  more  appropriations,  state  and  congres- 
sional, were  required  to  raise  the  requisite  ten  or  twelve 
millions,  as  difficult  a  matter  and  imposing  a  greater 
burden  upon  the  people  than  any  four  hundred  million 
Panama  canal  appropriation  of  the  present  day. 

Over  this  thoroughfare  poured  a  stream  of  population, 
thousands  from  Europe  as  well  as  those  from  the  Atlantic 
states,  which,  percolating  through  the  minor  channels  of 
intercommunication,  multiplied  the  midcontinent  inhabi- 
tants, and  overspreading  the  plains  beyond  crossed  the 
mountains  and  deserts,  finally  debouching  upon  the  golden 
shores  of  the  Pacific. 

All  along  the  length  of  it,  like  the  paved  street  of  a 
city  cut  through  the  wilds  of  country,  were  seen  families 
and  associations  rolling  their  great  wagons  westward  with 
ease  and  comfort,  the  men  attended  by  women  and  chil- 
dren, mounted  and  on  foot,  with  cows  and  sheep  and 
chickens,  and  all  the  concomitants  of  settlement  and  civili- 
zation, meeting  on  the  way  droves  of  fat  cattle,  and  wagons 


62  RETROSPECTION 

piled  high  with  food  products  for  the  markets  of  the  east. 
For  this  highway  of  happiness,  the  medium  of  wealth  and 
progress  at  a  critical  juncture  in  the  development  of  the 
country,  thanks  are  due  in  greater  part  to  Henry  Clay  and 
Albert  Gfallatin. 

The  Erie  canal,  then  the  largest  in  the  world,  and  of 
which  Governor  Clinton  of  New  York  was  father,  stimu- 
lated progress  at  the  east  and  in  the  lake  region  by  bring- 
ing the  Atlantic  into  water  communication  with  the  great 
inland  seas.  The  effect  on  New  York  city  was  marvelous, 
causing  it  to  shoot  forward  rapidly  in  population  past 
Philadelphia,  doubling  the  distance  in  1830,  trebling  it  by 
1840,  and  having  four  times  the  population  of  the  Quaker 
city  in  1850.  Meanwhile  manufactures  developed  in  New 
England,  and  transportation  was  further  facilitated  by  the 
construction  of  other  wagon-roads  and  canals. 

A  thousand  flat-boats  and  barges  floated  down  the  Ohio 
carrying  empire  to  the  prairie-lands  beyond  the  Mississip- 
pi. These  were  followed  by  the  steamboat,  which  marked 
an  era  in  midcontinent  progress.  Steamboating  on  the 
Mississippi,  all  in  the  roaring  forties,  the  tales  that  are 
told! — tales  of  racing,  betting,  drinking,  a  plantation  lost 
and  won  at  a  single  sitting,  tales  of  love  and  crime,  of 
broken  heads  and  broken  hearts. 

As  an  epoch  in  the  evolution  of  our  commonwealth,  the 
pathways  of  the  Plains,  their  utilization  and  obliteration, 
will  ever  stand  unique.  A  single  decade  defines  the  period, 
from  1846  to  1856,  and  includes  the  hegira  overland,  to 
which  indeed  another  ten  years  may  be  added  for  exploita- 
tion and  yet  further  development. 

The  time  is  somewhat  long  it  is  true,  to  serve  as  a 
turning  point  in  our  country's  short  history,  were  it  not 
that  during  this  period  events  were  introduced  which  made 
the  difference  in  the  end  as  between  a  rather  common- 
place American  republic  and  a  great  nation  potential  in 
the  affairs  of  the  world. 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  63 

A  great  nation,  the  greatest  of  nations,  though  it  was 
some  time  before  we  found  it  out,  some  time  before  the 
other  nations  found  it  out,  though  the  latter  may  have 
been  first  to  realize  the  situation. 

First  there  was  the  war  with  Mexico.  Looking  back  to 
that  time  we  were  indeed,  as  it  seems  to  us  now,  a  petty 
power,  with  no  small  bluster  of  fledgeling  generals  and 
captains  going  to  war  with  what  we  knew  to  be  a  weaker 
fellow  than  ourselves,  and  for  the  noble  purpose  of  giving 
to  southern  chivalry  more  slave  territory,  though  the  great 
state  of  Texas  had  but  just  been  secured  to  the  south  for 
that  purpose. 

The  Mexican  war.  Oh,  yes!  we  fought  and  bled  and 
died  for  our  country  there,  at  Monterey  and  Chapultepec, 
and  the  rabble  that  won  easy  victories  over  the  half-clad, 
ill-armed,  and  ill-officered  Mexicans  have  been  boasting  of 
it  and  drawing  pensions  ever  since.  However  this  may  be 
the  result  brought  us  California;  California  brought  us 
gold;  gold  brought  us  to  the  attention  of  the  world,  and 
to  our  Pacific  shores  a  good  class  of  representatives  from 
all  the  nations,  many  of  whom  remained,  and  after  the 
first  flush  of  mining  fever  was  over  turned  their  attention 
to  finance,  merchandise,  and  agriculture,  lending  their  aid 
to  the  upbuilding  of  a  commonwealth  of  which  they  were 
among  the  most  valued  members. 

Then  came  the  war  for  the  Union,  which  brought  an 
end  to  slavery,  and  citizenship  to  some  millions  of  an  alien 
servile  race.  And  graft  came  also,  glorious  graft!  Our 
country,  great  in  all  things,  greatest  of  all  in  graft;  and 
the  monster  is  still  with  us. 

To  return  to  our  pathways  of  the  Plains,  whose  oblitera- 
tion wipes  out  the  only  record  coming  to  us  of  the  ages 
of  darkness,  and  whose  utilization  marks  the  incoming  of 
another  race  with  other  life  objects  in  view.  Here  was  a 
vast  amphitheatre  lying  between  the  two  greatest  oceans 
edged  by  civilization  l>ut  wild  within.  In  this  wilderness 


64:  RETROSPECTION 

was  little  that  was  visible  of  human  life  or  design.  In  the 
vicinity  of  the  streams,  running  mostly  east  and  west, 
were  clearly  marked  paths,  or  series  of  paths,  sometimes 
in  single  ruts  of  two  or  three  feet  in  depth,  sometimes  in 
broad  roadways  a  hundred  feet  in  width. 

These  pathways  extended  at  intervals  across  the  conti- 
nent for  a  thousand  or  two  thousand  miles,  over  plains, 
mountains,  and  deserts,  the  continuity  frequently  broken 
but  only  to  be  resumed,  and  always  in  the  main  trending 
east  and  west.  Lateral  lines  of  lesser  mark  ran  off  to  north 
and  south,  but  soon  terminating  in  the  hills,  or  in  some 
woods,  or  in  grassy  meadows;  there  were  no  main  aborigi- 
nal thoroughfares  extending  north  and  south. 

Plainly  these  roadways  were  first  made  by  the  wild 
beasts,  notably  by  buffalo  in  their  daily  stampede  for  water. 
Then  they  were  used  by  the  Indians,  then  by  the  fur-hunters, 
and  finally  by  the  wagon-driving  emigrants,  the  overland 
stage,  the  pony  express  riders,  and  the  railways. 

Overland  motorists  are  becoming  interested  in  these 
ancient  pathways,  which  will  doubtless  exercise  an  in- 
fluence in  the  proposed  construction  of  a  national  auto- 
mobile highway  across  the  continent,  just  as  the  attention 
of  European  motorists  was  attracted  by  the  Roman  roads 
in  England,  begun  by  Julius  Csesar  and  afterward  ex- 
tended into  a  network  covering  the  whole  country  with  a 
line  2500  miles  in  length. 

Scenes  of  the  century  pass  through  the  mind  with 
transformations  as  startling  in  their  rapidity  as  they  are 
inexorable  in  their  decrees.  As  something  present  they 
are  romance ;  as  something  past,  a  dream. 

A  wide  spread  of  sage-brush  desert  banked  on  the  east 
by  mountains,  wooded  or  treeless,  and  on  the  other  sides 
by  more  desert,  with  salty  lakes,  and  sluggish  streams,  and 
alkaline  water-holes,  and  yet  other  far  away  mountains. 
Oases  here  and  there,  with  fresh-water  wells,  and  an  opal- 
esque sky  spreading  across  the  cactus  plain  the  seductive 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  65 

mirage,  while  beyond  are  brown  hills  rolling  in  the  pellu- 
cid air. 

A  garden  of  the  gods  with  far  away  stretches  of  land 
and  water,  of  mountain  foliage  and  burning  plain  under  a 
low-lying  sun,  with  its  unclad  humanity  moving  among 
strangely  named  beasts  and  plucking  the  unf orbidden  fruit. 
A  hundred  different  tribes  with  a  hundred  different  faiths 
and  languages  and  customs,  each  with  an  unwritten  history 
running  back  into  an  eternity  of  darkness  for  thousands 
of  years,  but  now  to  be  rudely  terminated,  nations  thrust 
out  over  the  brink,  and  all  primeval  life  strangled. 

This  is  to  make  room  for  the  second  part,  an  ethnic 
miracle  here  to  be  wrought,  not  only  the  incoming  of  a 
new  race,  but  the  creation  of  a  new  race,  the  west- Ameri- 
can man,  quite  as  different  from  the  east- American  as  from 
the  southerner. 

Wide  over  these  plains  we  see  nothing  to  mark  the 
presence  of  any  former  people;  we  see  nothing  to  denote 
the  migrations  of  any  present  humanity  save  these  fine 
interlacing  lines  denoting  the  pathways  of  nature,  and  the 
line  of  earth-work  before  mentioned  slanting  down  from 
Labrador  to  western  Mexico. 

Game  of  all  sorts  was  there,  each  kind  choosing  its 
own  habitat.  Elk  and  deer  in  the  mountains,  antelope 
gliding  gracefully  over  the  rolling  prairie,  horses  broken 
loose  from  Mexico  that  freedom  had  made  wild,  herds  of 
bellowing  buffalo  stampeding  at  evening  in  a  cloud  of 
dust  down  to  the  river  to  drink.  With  the  wild  beasts 
were  mingled  wild  men,  while  between  all  crafty  fortune- 
hunters  threaded  their  dangerous  way  to  spy  out  the  land 
and  gather  from  its  hidden  treasures. 

This  continental  interior,  regarded  at  first  as  a  worthless 
domain,  and  called  in  various  parts  bad  lands,  waste 
lands,  great  American  desert,  and  the  like,  was  found  on 
exploitation  to  be  full  of  natural  wealth,  gold  silver  and 
copper,  iron  and  coal,  stately  forests  and  succulent  grasses. 
The  soil  which  on  the  surface  appeared  like  drifted  sand 


66  RETROSPECTION 

in  the  sage-brush,  was  found  upon  the  application  of  water 
to  be  rich  in  alluvium,  and  fertile  beyond  belief.  Even 
in  the  denuded  mountain  region  emigrant  stock  reduced 
to  a  skeleton  and  turned  loose  in  the  autumn  to  die,  found 
under  the  snow  which  they  learned  to  scrape  away  with 
nose  and  feet,  and  also  where  the  wind  had  laid  bare  the 
ground,  a  dry  nutritious  grass  which  brought  out  the  ani- 
mals in  the  spring  to  the  eyes  of  their  astonished  owners 
sleek  and  fat,  and  opened  the  way  to  those  great  cattle- 
ranges  which  brought  wealth  to  so  many.  Each  of  these 
several  industries  evolved  a  new  order  of  sovereign  men, 
and  the  mountains  became  alive  with  magnates. 

After  1830  the  paths  of  the  fur-hunters  were  relegated 
back  into  the  hills,  and  the  wagons  of  the  emigrants  be- 
gan to  mark  out  roads  for  wheeled  vehicles  over  the 
prairie,  to  be  followed  forty  years  later  by  the  railroads. 
It  was  not  an  uncommon  occurrence  in  early  railroading 
experience  for  trains  to  stop  to  let  pass  a  stampeding  herd 
of  buffalo,  while  shooting  game  from  the  car  window  was 
sometimes  permitted. 

Along  the  too  often  waterless  wagon-trails  to  Oregon 
in  the  early  forties  and  to  California  in  the  early  fifties, 
poured  a  stream  of  west-bound  emigrants  seeking  land 
and  gold  and  adventure.  Long  lines  of  creaking  prairie 
schooners  behind  strings  of  yoked  oxen,  or  of  mixed  teams 
of  mules,  horses,  and  cows,  with  piled-up  household  para- 
phernalia, all  of  their  belongings,  attended  by  women  and 
children,  men  and  boys,  on  foot  and  horseback,  rolled  out 
from  Independence  and  St.  Joseph  into  the  wooded  border- 
land, and  on  into  the  broad  prairies,  over  the  snow-clad 
mountains  through  the  torrid  heat  of  the  desert,  with  its 
sage-brush  foliage,  and  on  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific, 
where  the  tide  .of  travel  was  thrown  back  upon  itself  and 
the  hardy  adventurers,  scattering  themselves  up  and  down 
the  coast,  were  forced  to  work  out  their  destiny  without 
further  cavil. 

For  material  progression  has  ever  been  toward  the  west, 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  67 

the  intellectual  closely  attendant,  and  the  ultimate  west 
attained,  there  comes  the  unfolding  of  a  new  civilization, 
a  western  development.  There  is  no  eastern  civilization; 
it  is  long  since  dead.  Hence  on  reaching  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Pacific,  westward  civilization  ceased  to  be  migratory. 
The  old  East  ;s  met  by  the  new  West,  and  comes  to  it  to 
school;  and  the  new  West  still  has  before  it  the  greatest 
work  ever  undertaken  by  man,  the  intellectual  conquest 
and  economic  reduction  of  the  half -civilized  peoples  border- 
ing this  mightiest  of  oceans. 

The  routes  overland  are  essentially  the  same  to-day  as 
were  those  marked  out  first  by  the  natives  and  the  fur- 
hunters,  and  later  followed  by  emigrant-wagons,  stages, 
and  steam-cars. 

Fifty  years  before  Lewis  and  Clarke  set  out  to  explore 
the  region  purchased  from  Napoleon,  the  scientific  savage 
Moncacht  Ape  had  made  the  same  journey,  up  the  Missouri 
and  down  the  Columbia,  an  account  of  which  is  given  by 
the  French  savant  Le  Page  du  Pratz.  Not  long  after- 
ward Jonathan  Carver  made  his  way  into  the  land  of  the 
Dacotahs,  and  mapped  the  Shining  mountains  veined  with 
gold,  the  River  of  the  West  flowing  into  the  Western  sea, 
and  New  Year's  Haven,  as  he  called  the  bay  of 
San  Francisco. 

In  1745,  and  again  in  1776,  England  offered  a  reward 
of  £20,000  for  the  discovery  by  a  British  ship  of  a  strait 
from  Hudson  bay  to  the  Pacific,  and  the  land  journeys  of 
Hearne  and  Mackenzie  followed. 

At  the  same  time  Lieutenant  Pike  and  Major  Long 
made  expeditions  to  the  Rocky  mountains  for  the  United 
States,  as  before  stated.  All  along  down  the  lines  of  the 
great  ranges  routes  were  established  through  the  passes, 
as  at  Peace  river,  Kootenai,  Cajon,  Klamath,  South  pass, 
Wahsatch,  Mimbres,  Tehuantepec,  and  scores  of  others. 

From  the  Missouri  river  the  Oregon  and  California 
emigrants  took  the  same  trail  to  Fort  Hall,  whence  the 


68  RETROSPECTION 

California-bound  followed  the  direction  of  the  Goose  creek 
mountains,  and  of  the  Goose  creek  and  Raft  river  branches 
of  Snake  river  to  the  rim  of  the  Great  Salt  lake  basin, 
and  by  an  easy  though  desert  road  to  the  sources  of  the 
Humboldt  near  Humboldt  wells.  The  rush  of  emigrants 
over  the  Oregon  trail  in  18-15  proved  an  important  factor 
in  securing  that  region  to  the  United  States. 

After  the  Mormons  had  made  their  way  into  Salt  Lake 
valley,  Weber  pass  was  found,  and  through  it  the  road 
went  from  South  pass  to  Salt  Lake  by  a  more  direct  route 
than  by  the  old  trapper  trail  via  Fort  Hall.  The  Cali- 
fornia-bound who  rested  at  Salt  Lake  sought  the  traverse 
from  the  Malade  valley  along  the  rim  of  the  basin,  strik- 
ing the  old  California  road  from  Fort  Hall  at  the  source 
of  Raft  river,  following  up  that  stream  and  then  over  the 
Humboldt  divide. 

There  were  many  roads  and  passes  in  the  south  while 
yet  California  was  a  territory  of  Mexico.  Conspicuous 
among  them  the  Santa  Fe  trail,  as  gay  with  traffic  and 
equipage  as  the  treasure-train  road  across  the  Panama 
isthmus.  Santa  Fe  was  reached  by  wagon  road  from  In- 
dependence, the  trail  thence  to  Los  Angeles  bearing  north- 
west by  the  Calinas  and  Wahsatch  mountains,  and  through 
the  Cajon  pass  to  San  Bernardino.  Below  this  was  the 
Zuni  road  from  Santa  Fe  to  Albuquerque  and  the  Gila 
road  by  Apache  pass. 

The  influence  of  natural  conditions  on  routes  and  settle- 
ments was  paramount.  Water  and  grass  were  of  the  first 
consideration,  after  these  altitude,  roughness,  and  woodi- 
ness  were  taken  into  account.  The  emigrant  road  through 
the  Rocky  mountains  to  Oregon  was  in  open  country  most 
of  the  way,  with  wooded  hills  in  the  distance. 

The  desert  road  to  California,  rendered  less  dangerous 
by  the  Humboldt  river,  was  marked  out  by  Walker,  chief 
of  the  notable  Bonneville  expedition  in  1833,  an  actual 
path-maker,  Fremont  who  followed  in  his  footsteps  being 
at  best  but  a  path-finder,  as  he  has  rightly  been  designated. 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  69 

The  Oregonians  who  accompanied  Marshall  to  Cali- 
fornia, and  there  made  the  gold-discovery,  were  not  gov- 
erned by  considerations  of  wagoning,  and  simply  retraced 
the  trail  of  the  California  and  Oregon  herders  with  pack- 
animals. 

Sutter  had  not  long  been  established  in  the  Sacramento 
valley  before  discovering  the  advantages  of  the  northern 
and  southern  routes  for  a  road  from  the  east,  as  he  pointed 
out  to  Wilkes  on  his  visit  to  California  in  1841. 

"When  the  Central  Pacific  railroad  was  begun  at  Sacra- 
mento the  wagon-road  which  led  up  to  the  ridge  forming 
the  northern  rim  of  the  American  river  basin  was  followed 
instead  of  that  ascending  the  valley  of  that  river.  The 
wagon-road  was  completed  through  Donner  pass  several 
years  before  the  railroad  was  built,  and  was  known  at 
that  time  as  the  Dutch  Flat  and  Virginia  city  wagon-road. 

In  the  fifties  railroad  extension  brought  new  economic 
conditions  and  a  marked  intellectual  expansion.  In  the 
sixties  were  moral  and  financial  revolutions,  arising  notably 
from  the  creeping  in  of  political  and  commercial  corrup- 
tion. 

For  half  a  century  after  the  Louisiana  purchase,  and  for 
ten  or  twenty  years  after  the  acquisition  of  the  California 
country,  the  Plains  were  held  by  their  aboriginal  inhabi- 
tants, whose  normal  attitude  was  one  of  hostility,  first  as 
among  themselves,  and  always  in  regard  to  strangers  who 
entered  their  domain.  Ever  watchful,  ever  alert,  like  the 
wild  beast  that  shared  their  home,  they  perforce  must 
guard  their  lives  night  and  day,  without  cessation,  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end. 

Among  the  habitants  of  this  region  was  'the  same 
physical  uniformity,  modified  by  individual  environment, 
to  be  found  throughout  the  two  Americas,  the  same  differ- 
ence from  all  other  peoples  with  the  same  likeness  to  each 
other.  Yet  in  no  other  quarter  could  greater  disparity 
be  found  than  between  the  Iroquois  and  Seminoles  of  the 


70  RETROSPECTION 

east  and  the  western  Shoshone  of  the  Nevada  desert  and 
the  nameless  Digger  of  the  California  coast. 

The  Chinooks  of  the  Columbia  were  mild  and  intelli- 
gent as  compared  with  the  fierce  Apaches  of  Arizona  and 
New  Mexico  and  the  roving  Comanches  of  Texas,  while 
the  Sioux  of  the  Missouri  and  the  Zuiii  of  the  Colorado 
differ  still  further  in  their  ways,  yet  all  with  resemblances 
enough  to  make  of  them  one  people. 

By  far  the  largest  of  American  migrations  in  a  single 
body  was  that  of  the  Mormons  to  Utah.  The  movement 
was  not  unlike  that  of  the  Puritans  from  England  and 
Holland ;  the  cause,  religious  and  social  persecution ;  the 
result  a  new  and  flourishing  commonwealth  established  in 
a  desert  country. 

It  was  a  stirring  eventuality  in  overland  travel,  the 
presence  of  the  Saints  in  Utah,  by  whose  door  the  emigrant 
trails  led.  Driven  from  their  several  abiding  places  at 
the  east,  they  had  longed  for  a  resting-place  in  a  land 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  In  pursuance  of 
this  desire  they  had  turned  their  face  westward.  There 
were  islands  in  the  Pacific;  the  California  country  of  which 
Utah  was  a  part  belonged  to  Mexico,  though  the  war  was 
now  tamely  raging  which  was  to  result  in  its  dismember- 
ment. 

It  was  the  spring  of  1846,  and  they  set  forth  to  the 
number  of  12,000  in  three  divisions,  their  objective  point, 
or  rendezvous,  being  as  yet  undetermined.  One  detach- 
ment sailed  in  the  ship  Brooklyn  from  New  York  in  charge 
of  Elder  Samuel  Brannan ;  another  detachment  was  formed 
into  a  Mormon  battalion,  and  took  the  Santa  Fe  trail  to 
fight  battles  for  the  people  who  had  cast  them  out;  the 
main  body  crossed  the  plains  from  Omaha  in  800  wagons 
under  Brigham  Young,  wrho  as  he  entered  the  valley  of 
the  Great  Salt  lake,  said  "Here  we  will  rest;  God  so  wills 
it.'*  And  he  sent  word  to  all  his  people  to  come  to  him 
there. 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  71 

But  meanwhile  changes  had  occurred.  The  Mormon 
battalion  were  surprised  on  reaching  San  Diego  to  see 
the  American  flag  flying  there.  Elder  Brannan  after  touch- 
ing at  the  Hawaiian  islands  came  to  San  Francisco  and 
set  his  Saints  at  raising  grain  on  the  San  Joaquin.  Some 
of  them  were  digging  at  the  tail-race  of  Sutter's  mill 
when  Marshall  found  gold.  Then  broke  forth  bedlam  in- 
deed among  the  brethren.  They  called  the  place  Mormon 
bar  where  they  could  pick  it  up  by  the  handful,  Elder 
Samuel  standing  by  taking  tithes. 

In  vain  Brigham  called,  they  would  not  come.  Gold 
was  a  stronger  magnet  than  godliness.  Some  of  them 
later,  either  filled  to  repletion  or  broken  on  the  wheel  of 
misfortune,  made  their  way  to  the  City  of  the  Saints,  but 
most  of  them  turned  renegade. 

Elder  Brannan  gathered  an  ample  harvest,  none  of 
which  ever  entered  the  valley  of  the  Saints'  Rest.  Saint 
Sam  was  now  a  convert  to  Californianism.  Finally  one 
of  the  innocents  picked  up  the  courage  to  ask  a  lawyer, 
' '  How  much  longer  can  brother  Brannan  collect  tithes  from 
us?"  "Just  as  long  as  you  are  fools  enough  to  pay  them," 
was  the  reply. 

Sam  was  well  satisfied,  however,  having  by  this  time 
scraped  together  a  fortune.  It  was  no  small  thing  to  have 
two  or  three  hundred  able  bodied  men,  obedient  to  his  call, 
to  reap  the  first  crop  from  rich  placers  around  Coloma,  and 
Sam  blossomed  out  into  San  Francisco's  first  magnate. 

Everybody  called  him  Sam,  and  smiled  at  his  late 
following  of  polygamous  saints.  For  a  time  he  had 
more  ready  money  than  any  other  man  in  California.  He 
sent  to  China  for  chiseled  stone  and  set  up  several  four- 
story  granite  front  structures  on  Montgomery  street,  which 
rose  up  out  of  the  mud,  great  pillars  of  prosperity,  the 
wonder  and  envy  of  the  home-returning  diggers. 

He  went  in  for  banks,  for  express  companies,  for 
gambling  emporiums.  He  learned  to  out-do  in  blasphemy 
Brigham  Young,  who  from  his  great  tabernacle  on  the 


72  RETROSPECTION 

mountain  heights  was  hurling  far-reaching  maledictions 
against  the  United  States  and  all  therein,  even  while  he 
was  honored  by  said  states  with  an  appointment  as  gov- 
ernor of  the  territory.  At  length  Sam  took  to  farms  and 
town-building,  and  finally  came  to  grief.  Sam  laid  out 
the  springs  of  Calistoga,  when,  alas!  absinthe  caught  and 
laid  out  Sam. 

After  the  Mormon  exodus  from  Illinois,  came  to  Utah 
that  constant  succession  of  caravans  which  were  enticed 
westward  by  California  gold.  The  fierce  antagonisms 
already  existing  were  intensified  by  the  abusive  language 
of  the  emigrants,  and  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  the 
Mormons  to  take  advantage  of  the  travellers'  necessities. 

The  valley  of  the  Great  Salt  lake  was  well  situated  as 
a  half-way  house  between  «the  Missouri  river  and  the  Pa- 
cific coast.  The  plains  and  great  divide  had  been  traversed 
by  the  weary  emigrants,  the  desert  and  Sierra  yet  re- 
mained. The  Mormons  were  on  the  ground  two  years  be- 
fore the  heaviest  travel  to  Oregon  and  California  had  be- 
gun, time  sufficient  to  plant  and  harvest  enough  and  to  spare. 
Amicable  treatment  and  fair  exchange  were  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  both.  The  emigrants  wanted  rest  and  refresh- 
ments for  themselves  and  cattle;  the  Mormons,  poor  and 
lacking  everything,  were  glad  to  get  whatever  the  emi- 
grants could  spare.  Both  people  were  likewise  in  the  main 
honest,  kind-hearted,  and  thrifty. 

But  the  demons  of  prejudice  and  hate  had  become  so 
fastened  on  all  concerned  that  they  could  not  meet  and 
part  in  peace.  The  emigrants  swore  loudly  and  were 
abusive,  the  Saints  were  secretive  and  retaliatory.  And 
all  along  the  way,  at  both  ends  of  the  line,  coming  and 
going,  tales  of  imposition  and  reprisal  kept  alive  the  en- 
mity, so  that  theft  and  murder  on  both  sides  were  not  of 
uncommon  occurrence. 

The  tragic  story  of  Mountain  meadow  massacre  is  well 
known,  but  there  are  many  unrecorded  fatalities  charged 


MIGRATIONS  AND  DEVELOPMENT  73 

to  the  Indians  in  which  none  but  white  men  were  engaged. 
It  is  safe  to  say,  however,  that  there  never  has  been  a  time 
when  peaceable  travellers,  behaving  themselves  and  attend- 
ing only  to  their  own  affairs,  were  not  safe  from  outrage  in 
Utah. 


CHAPTER   V 

SOME   OHIO    YANKEES 

AMONG  the  many  settlements  beyond  the  Alleghanies 
was  that  of  Granville,  Ohio,  one  of  the  brightest  of 
the  New  England  colonies  planted  in  this  western  wilder- 
ness. It  was  somewhat  different  from  the  many  similar 
swarmings  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  straggling  along 
down  between  the  great  lakes  and  the  gulf,  a  class  by  itself, 
and  a  trifle  more  backward,  perhaps,  than  some  of  the 
others  to  join  later  in  the  great  amalgamations  of  the 
Mississippi  valley. 

While  the  followers  of  Daniel  Boone  were  making  their 
way  along  the  wilderness  road  from  the  exhausted  tobacco 
fields  of  Virginia  through  Cumberland  gap  into  the  bloom- 
ing regions  of  Kentucky,  where  a  Virginia  court  with 
courthouse  jury-rooms  and  jail  had  been  established  since 
1776,  restless  New  Englanders  were  turning  attention  to 
their  possessions  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  and  along  the 
lakes. 

Characteristic  of  the  time  and  place  a  story  is  told  of 
a  little  Massachusetts  boy  who  was  out  on  a  rocky  hillside 
one  day  helping  with  the  planting.  Presently  he  was  ob- 
served quietly  crying,  as  if  with  vexation.  "What  is  the 
matter,  my  son?"  asked  the  father.  "I  can't  get  dirt 
enough  to  cover  the  corn !  ' '  was  the  reply.  Thereupon  that 
father  resolved  to  go  to  some  country  where  there  was  more 
land  to  the  acre. 

All  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  in  all  the  states  north 
and  south,  emigrating  companies  were  formed,  and  soon 
the  entire  country  east  of  the  Mississippi  was  dotted  with 

74 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  75 

settlements.  In  1787  was  organized  at  Ipswich,  Massa- 
chusetts, the  Ohio  Association,  and  the  colony  of  Marietta 
was  established  on  the  Ohio  at  the  Muskingum.  For  the 
nominal  price  of  seventy  cents  an  acre  the  associates 
secured  from  the  United  States  north  of  the  Ohio  a  million 
acres,  with  a  bill  of  rights  guaranteeing  freedom  of  re- 
ligion; rights  of  person  and  property;  fair  treatment  of 
the  Indians ;  no  slavery,  but  fugitive  slaves  to  be  returned, 
which  last  stipulation  the  people  of  Ohio  gave  themselves 
little  concern  about.  The  price  per  acre  was  several  times 
lessened  by  the  acceptation  in  payment  of  government 
bounty  land  certificates,  which  fell  at  times  as  low  in  price 
as  twenty-three  cents  on  the  dollar ;  so  that  in  reality  large 
blocks  of  land  passed  into  the  possession  of  the  settlers  at 
as  low  a  rate  as  ten  cents  an  acre. 

Three  million  acres  were  secured  for  the  Society  of  the 
Scioto,  and  emigrants  brought  from  France  to  serve  as 
colonists.  Some  of  this  land  was  sold  to  Massachusetts 
people,  notably  to  a  company  from  Granville  of  that  state, 
$1.67  an  acre  being  the  price  paid.  But  notwithstanding 
these  several  settlements,  and  many  others  from  New  Eng- 
land, more  than  half  of  the  Ohio  valley  was  finally  occu- 
pied by  people  from  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia. 

In  1803  Ohio  was  created  a  state,  with  one  section  of 
land  free  in  each  township  for  schools,  and  land  hitherto 
bought  from  the  United  States  for  settlement  to  be  exempt 
from  taxation  for  four  years 

At  Granville,  Massachusetts,  in  1804,  was  organized  the 
Licking  Land  company.  Being  neighbors  living  in  a 
small  village  the  members  and  their  families  were  well 
known  to  each  other,  and  being  of  like  faith  customs  and 
traditions,  harmony  and  happiness  resulted.  It  was  a 
thoughtful  and  thrifty  community,  with  an  intelligent 
understanding  of  all  questions  of  the  day,  firm  convic- 
tions and  fixed  principles,  and  rather  high  ideals,  though 
tinctured  with  the  fanaticism  of  the  time. 

Although  it  was  now  nearly  two  hundred  years  since 


76  RETROSPECTION 

the  Mayflower  came,  the  incidents  of  that  coming,  as  well 
as  subsequent  events,  stood  as  clearly  denned  in  their 
minds  as  if  they  were  of  yesterday. 

The  business  of  the  Licking  Land  company  began  with 
the  payment  by  each  member  of  eight  dollars  for  expenses 
of  viewing  and  selection.  Meetings  were  held  and  details 
discussed  from  time  to  time  during  the  year,  until  a  thor- 
ough understanding  existed  as  to  life  and  occupation  in 
their  new  home.  In  all  this  the  men 's  faces  wore  an  aspect 
of  serious  concern,  the  wives  and  grown  up  children  giv- 
ing intelligent  sympathy  and  assistance. 

At  length  they  were  ready  to  start.  All  were  neatly 
but  plainly  clad,  and  the  household  effects  were  carefully 
bestowed  in  large  covered  wagons  to  be  drawn  by  six  or 
eight  stout  horses  or  twice  that  number  of  oxen.  All  their 
belongings  were  useful  and  of  good  quality;  wagons,  har- 
ness, and  horses  of  the  best. 

The  caravan  presented  quite  an  imposing  appearance 
as  it  swept  down  through  darkest  Pennsylvania,  bringing 
to  the  doors  of  their  dwellings  the  mild-eyed  Quaker  and 
the  stout  German  housewife,  the  urchins  shouting  "The 
Yankees  are  coming!  The  Yankees  are  coming!" 

It  was  essentially  a  Massachusetts  association,  named 
for  the  Granville  of  that  state,  though  it  welcomed  as  one 
with  itself  a  fair  contingent  from  Vermont.  The  site 
chosen  was  charming,  as  in  common  with  their  cousins  of 
Boston  they  had  an  eye  for  the  beautiful — a  tract  of  choice 
hill  and  valley  land,  "the  hills  for  health  and  the  valleys 
for  cultivation"  as  they  expressed  it;  malaria  in  the  form 
of  fever  and  ague  to  be  specially  guarded  against.  Though 
hitherto  unknown  to  the  aborigines,  like  most  of  the  white 
man's  ailments,  it  was  common  to  all  new  settlements,  and 
especially  virulent  among  the  sand  eruptions  and  sunken 
forests  along  the  Mississippi  river. 

The  Granville  people  took  possession  of  their  Scioto 
purchase  in  1805.  Two  years  later  Granville  township 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  77 

was  formed,  and  in  1808  Licking  county  was  proclaimed, 
so  called  from  the  deer  licks  in  the  vicinity.  The  township 
tract  was  five  miles  square;  in  the  middle  of  it  was  laid 
out  the  town  with  100-acre  farms  around  it. 

In  this  Ohio  Granville  met  and  married  Ashley  Ban- 
croft and  Lucy  Howe,  the  former  from  Massachusetts  the 
latter  from  Vermont,  and  there  was  born  from  this  union 
on  the  5th  of  May,  1832,  Hubert  Howe  Bancroft,  the 
writer  of  these  annals,  sensitive  and  shy  as  a  boy,  without 
sufficient  assurance  for  any  thing  very  good  or  very  bad; 
as  a  man  much  the  same — and  that  is  all. 

They  called  the  land  new,  and  so  it  was  new  to  them, 
though  in  truth  a  thousand  years  older  than  Columbus,  as 
shown  by  the  year-marks  of  trees  standing  on  the  fantastic 
earth-mounds  in  the  forms  of  eagles,  alligators,  squares, 
half-moons,  intermingled  with  fragments  of  aboriginal 
weapons,  cooking  utensils,  and  stone  walls,  which  adorned 
the  hill-tops  of  this  township,  marking  the  sometime  pres- 
ence of  a  departed  people  unknown  by  and  apparently  un- 
related to  the  native  Shawnees  that  the  Europeans  found 
there. 

A  wild,  hilly,  thickly  wooded  section  adjoining  the  New 
Englanders  was  secured  for  a  trifle  by  a  "Welshman,  who 
planted  there  some  of  his  people,  an  honest,  thrifty  race, 
the  region  being  known  thereafter  as  the  Welsh  hills. 

An  early  experience  of  the  writer  was  a  visit  to  these 
people,  invited  thither  by  one  of  their  number  who  worked 
as  hired  man  to  my  father.  It  was  Sunday,  and  I  was  per- 
mitted to  go  only  on  the  ground  of  attending  church.  As 
I  was  so  small  that  I  had  to  be  carried  part  of  the  way, 
and  as  the  services  were  wholly  in  Welsh,  I  was  not  greatly 
edified,  and  could  hardly  have  repeated  the  text  had  I  been 
asked  to  do  so.  Nor  so  far  as  I  could  judge  was  my  soul 
greatly  imperiled. 

The  town  was  laid  out  after  the  manner  common  to 
New  England  villages,  a  broad  street  running  from  end  to 
end  and  connecting  with  the  county  roads  to  the  towns 


78  RETROSPECTION 

on  either  side.  On  this  main  street  were  the  stores, 
churches,  public  offices,  and  best  dwellings,  those  of  lesser 
importance  occupying  side  streets.  At  an  early  day  com- 
munication with  the  world  at  large  was  secured,  notably 
with  Cleveland  on  Lake  Erie  and  Portsmouth  on  the  Ohio 
river,  by  a  series  of  canals  cut  in  different  directions 
to  the  extent  of  eight  hundred  miles  of  artificial  navi- 
gation. 

It  was  a  picturesque  spot;  on  one  side  a  range  of  well 
rounded  hills,  and  on  the  other,  running  through  low  rich 
meadow  land,  a  small  river,  navigable  as  a  canal  in  places, 
elsewhere  bright  and  rippling,  turning  here  and  there  a 
grist  mill  and  in  later  times  a  factory  or  two.  At  one  end 
of  the  village  near  where  the  country  road  passed  out  of 
it  was  a  steep  conical  hill,  sugar-loaf  it  was  called — every 
well-regulated  hamlet  had  its  sugar-loaf  in  those  days,  the 
name  being  common  from  the  only  form  in  which  white 
sugar  was  then  served  to  families. 

An  atmosphere  of  serious  austerity  pervaded  the  place. 
Well  away  from  the  influence  either  of  commerce  or  manu- 
factures, yet  possessed  with  an  aggressive  economic  un- 
rest, their  industrial  pursuits  at  this  early  date  could  find 
expression  only  in  agriculture  and  home-building,  which 
with  a  lively  interest  in  the  political  questions  of  the  day, 
and  their  township  affairs,  tended  to  foster  thought  and 
independence. 

Values  were  rated  according  to  supply  and  the  cur- 
rency measure  of  the  time.  Wages  fifty  cents  a  day ;  board 
at  the  hotel  a  dollar  a  week ;  chickens  ten  cents  each ;  but- 
ter fifteen  cents,  salt  six  cents,  beef  four  cents,  and  venison 
three  cents  a  pound.  While  peaches,  quickly  grown,  sold 
at  twenty-five  cents  a  bushel,  apples  were  three  dollars; 
while  wheat  was  a  dollar  a  bushel,  corn  was  twenty-five 
cents,  and  a  bushel  of  it  was  exchangeable  at  the  distillery 
for  a  gallon  of  whiskey. 

For  whiskey  was  friendly  in  those  days,  not  the  devil 
incarnate  of  to-day.  It  stood  in  a  pitcher  on  the  table,  and 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  79 

old  and  young  might  help  themselves.  And  there  was  like- 
wise a  patriotic  rum  called  New  England.  Playing  cards 
and  dancing  were  anathema;  novels,  tobacco,  slavery,  and 
fiddles  were  Satan  and  his  angels. 

When  change  was  scarce  the  silver  dollar  was  cut  with 
an  axe  into  halves  and  quarters;  in  the  absence  of  silver, 
skins  were  the  currency,  and  whiskey  an  article  of  ex- 
change. Wolves,  bears,  and  panthers  yielded  their  skins, 
the  buffalo,  wild  turkey,  and  opossum  their  flesh ;  the  rattle- 
snake was  an  unmitigated  nuisance. 

My  father's  youngest  brother  received  as  his  inherit- 
ance a  chest  of  carpenter  tools.  And  he  said,  "With  these 
I  will  carve  my  fortune.  I  shall  marry  me  a  good  wife ;  I 
shall  build  me  a  good  house,  and  for  ten  years  I  shall  save 
up  one  hundred  dollars  each  year."  This  he  did;  then 
became  merchant,  then  banker,  and  was  finally  gathered 
to  his  fathers.  Did  Rothschild  or  Rockefeller  more? 

Recollections  of  my  Granville  life  began  with  a  pet 
lamb,  grown  impudent  by  indulgence,  butting  me  down 
from  a  pile  of  sand,  later  sacrificed  for  his  sins,  and  eaten 
by  the  younger  sort  all  unconscious  of  cannibalistic  devour- 
ings. 

Among  my  several  youthful  accomplishments  was  read- 
ing the  Bible  at  the  age  of  three  years,  which  saved  much 
reading  of  the  book  later;  stealing  bright  new  rake-teeth 
from  a  factory  near  by  and  then  lying  about  it.  In  answer 
to  the  question  "Where  did  you  get  them?" — two  lies, 
one,  "I  found  them,"  the  other,  "A  man  gave  them  to 
me" — bad  even  for  an  infant  grafter,  two  lies  where  one 
were  better,  one  worse  than  wasted,  not  to  be  winked  at 
by  the  high-crime  court,  but  to  be  promptly  dealt  with  by 
the  rod,  three  several  applications,  one  for  each  of  the  two 
lies,  and  one  for  the  stealing,  all  attended  by  prayer  and 
supplication,  and  all  because  of  so  much  early  Bible 
reading. 

The  discipline  though  drastic  was  effective.  The  boy 
pondered ;  he  could  hold  only  three  of  those  rake-teeth  in 


80  RETROSPECTION 

his  little  hand.  One  whipping  a  tooth,  and  prayer  and 
exhortation  thrown  in.  More  than  that,  he  must  return  the 
rake-teeth  and  say  he  was  sorry.  He  concluded  that 
wickedness  did  not  pay,  at  least  on  so  small  a  scale,  and 
thereupon  he  gave  up  the  business. 

Another  curative  method  for  lying,  milder,  modern, 
perhaps  as  effective. 

At  the  family  farm  in  California  happily  lived  four 
youngsters,  three  boys  and  a  girl,  ages  seven  to  twelve. 
The  father  discovered  one  day  on  the  porch  floor  p,  puddle 
of  ink  with  a  mat  thrown  over  it.  The  parents  were  at  no 
time  terrific  in  their  expostulations,  and  but  for  the 
secretiveness  attending  what  was  no  doubt  an  accident 
the  father  would  have  thought  nothing  of  it.  Calling  the 
children  to  him  he  mildly  asked  who  had  been  spilling  ink, 
and  instead  of  washing  it  away  had  covered  it  up.  All 
disclaimed  any  knowledge  of  it.  As  the  mother  was  absent 
and  no  one  but  the  children  about  the  house,  it  required 
no  great  reflection  on  the  father's  part  to  see  that  a  fib 
was  hidden  away  somewhere  in  the  little  fold. 

"Well,"  said  he,  "let  us  draw  up  our  chairs  around 
this  black  blot  upon  our  family  escutcheon  and  talk  it 
over. 

"Of  ancient  origin,  this  dismal  fluid,  one  of  grand 
achievements  as  well  as  dastardly  deeds — a  page  of  ado- 
lescent poetry,  for  example,  a  conspiracy  discovered,  a 
marriage  contract,  a  death  warrant.  Many  strange  revela- 
tions it  has  made,  many  a  man  it  has  hanged,  and  many  a 
woman  undone." 

Signs  of  unrest  broke  out  in  the  little  audience  during 
this  highly  instructive  and  lucid  discourse,  manifested  by 
shiftings  of  position,  stabbing  mosquitoes  with  a  pin,  and 
contortions  of  features  while  watching  the  interesting  con- 
vulsions of  spider  and  fly. 

"What's  it  all  about  any  way?"  pipes  a  little  one;  and 
another,  the  reckless,  devil-may-care  sort  of  fellow,  of  all 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  81 

the  four  always  the  suspect,  "I  say,  Papa,  how  long  are 
you  going  to  keep  us  here  ?  I  want ' ' 

He  bluffs  well,  the  little  cuss,  the  father  thought. 

"Only  until  the  ink  or  something  speaks,"  he  said. 
Then,  continuing,  "Queer  stuff,  ink!  Compound  of  lamp- 
Wack  and  glue,  logwood  and  potassium,  acid  or  oxide  or 
what  you  will.  Pliny  employed  nutgalls  and  iron  sulphate, 
Cicero  squeezed  cuttle-fish;  but  howsoever  engendered, 
always  the  messenger  of  life  and  scavenger  of  death,  always 
breathing  love  and  hate,  always  evolving  comedy  and 
tragedy,  healing  hearts  and  breaking  them,  helping  some 
to  their  Nirvana  and  others  to  their  Styx  crossing ;  a  won- 
derful thing  this  black  liquid  that  writes  itself  on  the 
porch  floor  to  tell  some  little  innocent  that  it  was  a  sort 
of  mistake  to  throw  a  mat  over  it.  For  like  Gehazi's  ad- 
venture, you  cannot  hide  it;  like  Banquo's  ghost,  it  will 
not  down;  a  good  friend  in  the  Lamb's  book  of  life,  a 
terrible  enemy  midst  the  thunderings  of  Sinai." 

A  sob,  a  burst  of  grief,  a  flood  of  tears  from  a  source 
the  least  expected.  And  it  struck  full  upon  that  father's 
breast.  Was  there  aught  of  petition  or  of  punishment  in 
the  parental  heart?  There  was  not.  Chastisement  in- 
flicted at  this  most  critical  moment  of  the  child's  life 
would  seem  like  striking  down  a  soul  hovering  on  the  verge 
of  the  infinite. 

"There,  there,"  said  the  father,  throwing  his  arm  over 
the  child's  shoulder,  "its  all  right,  only  a  little  mistake,  it 
was  the  dirty  door-mat  that  somehow  got  over  the  ink, 
wasn't  it?  Now  come  away  and  think  no  more  about  it." 

But  the  little  one  did  think  about  it.  It  was  the  first 
and  last  lie  the  child  was  ever  known  to  tell. 

On  another  occasion,  another  of  the  young  philosophers, 
hearing  some  remark  on  the  obedience  of  children,  ex- 
claimed, "Mind  my  father!  Why  shouldn't  I?  Papa 
makes  us  want  to  do  what  he  wants  us  to." 

To  return  to  our  Ohio  affairs. 


82  RETROSPECTION 

At  the  age  of  five  years  the  farm  demanded  ray  services 
to  the  exclusion  of  school  in  summer.  I  remember  one 
day  riding  the  horse  to  plow  between  the  rows  of  corn 
under  the  hot  sun,  my  bare  legs  chafed  by  the  harness  and 
smarting  from  the  animal's  sweat.  I  burst  out  crying, 
for  I  was  but  a  baby.  My  father  kindly  inquired  the  cause, 
for  he  was  by  no  means  a  harsh  man.  ' '  I  think  it  is  pretty 
hard  work  for  a  little  boy  here  all  day,"  I  said.  "I  think 
so,  too,  my  son,"  was  the  reply,  and  straightway  I  was 
released. 

Memories  more  or  less  tender  or  tough  come  to  me  of 
orchard  and  meado<w  and  deep  tangled  wildwood  that 
were  there,  and  the  veritable  old  oaken  bucket  itself  that 
hung  in  the  well. 

How  I  hated  milking  the  cow,  hoeing  in  the  garden  or 
field,  raking  hay  in  the  scorching  sun,  and  going  to  school 
— though  there  were  many  compensations,  cracking  nuts 
and  popping  corn  by  the  fireside  winter  nights ;  camping  in 
the  snow  under  the  maple-trees  sugaring  time;  sleighing, 
skating,  or  fishing;  bathing,  shooting  squirrels,  or  for 
further  excitement  catching  and  mounting  an  unbroken 
colt  only  to  be  thrown  as  fast  as  repeated. 

Our  farm  was  but  half  a  mile  from  the  village,  a  hill 
intervening,  from  one  side  of  which  my  father  took  stone 
and  built  him  a  fine  house,  while  on  the  summit  stood  later 
the  baptist  college  which  gave  Mr.  Rockefeller  a  good  pres- 
ident for  his  Chicago  university. 

Indeed,  this  little  New  England  oasis  was  from  the 
first  quite  educational  in  its  way,  when  not  too  absorbed 
by  fads  and  fanaticism.  Besides  district  school  and 
academy  there  were  two  large  female  seminaries,  baptist 
learning  not  at  all  fitting  Boston  Congregationalism. 

Evidences  of  the  intellectual  life  and  its  aspirations  were 
elsewhere  visible  beyond  the  Alleghanies.  With  the  Ohio 
company  of  1787  from  Ipswich  had  come  the  Ohio  uni- 
versity, whose  personnel  consisted  largely  of  Yale  and 
Harvard  men.  Then  not  far  distant  were  the  Miami  uni- 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  83 

versity,  the  Western  Reserve  college,  the  Oberlin  ultra 
abolition  institution,  and  others.  As  in  New  England  re- 
ligion and  education  went  hand  in  hand;  a  town  without 
its  church  and  school  was  a  barbarism. 

Here  indeed  were  both  heredity  and  environment,  even 
if  not  under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  eugenics  and 
eutherics,  not  in  opposition  but  working  in  harmony.  And 
the  doctrine  thence  emerging  was  current  there,  though 
the  people  did  not  so  express  themselves. 

They  knew  themselves  to  be  well  born,  these  sturdy 
New  Englanders,  of  pious  and  thrifty  ancestry,  thinkers 
of  their  own  thoughts,  and  right  thinkers  according  to  the 
enlightenment  of  their  understanding;  and  yet  with  all 
their  necessity,  free-will  entire,  the  will  to  do,  to  improve, 
to  accept  the  best  and  profit  by  the  good  things  God  had 
given  them.  They  knew  it  to  be  a  favorable  atmosphere 
for  the  making  of  men,  as  were  also  conditions  of  their 
kind  along  the  Mississippi,  but  different.  Ohio  has  fur- 
nished her  full  quota  of  scholars  and  statesmen,  not  to 
mention  fighting  men  and  money-makers. 

For  a  long  time  after  railroads  and  steamboats  came 
into  vogue  my  grandfather  Howe  refused  to  trust  himself 
on  any  of  them,  using  only  his  one-horse  springless  wagon 
for  his  limited  travelling.  He  was  told  every  Sunday,  and 
often  repeated  the  precept  to  others,  that  God's  arm  was 
not  shortened  that  it  could  not  save,  yet  he  did  not  feel 
quite  as  safe  trusting  to  it  where  steam  was  concerned.  It 
was  not  until  he  lacked  two  years  of  being  a  hundred 
years  old  that  he  was  persuaded  to  make  the  journey  by 
way  of  the  Isthmus  to  California,  where  were  many  of  his 
descendants  whom  he  greatly  desired  to  see.  He  enjoyed 
his  trip  thoroughly,  and  after  his  visit  returned  in  safety 
to  his  home  in  Kansas,  where  he  then  lived  with  his 
youngest  daughter. 

He  was  one  of  the  best  and  purest  men  that  ever  lived, 
even  if  California  did  seem  to  him  a  little  beyond  the  pale 
of  providence.  Even  the  debtors'  prison  at  St.  Albans, 


84  RETROSPECTION 

Vermont,  did  not  affright  him  when  lodged  there  for  a 
thousand  dollar  obligation  incurred  as  surety  for  a  friend. 
And  as  for  faith,  where  were  the  mountains  it  would  not 
remove?  Novels  were  his  special  detestation;  the  black 
man  an  ebony  idol. 

"But  grandfather  reads  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  that  is  a 
novel." 

"A  novel!  What  do  you  mean?  It  is  true,  every  word 
of  it." 

I  do  not  pretend  to  any  remembrance  of  it,  but  I  may 
state  the  facts  as  history,  that  when  I  was  four  years  old, 
while  yet  Abraham  Lincoln  was  playing  seven-up  with 
slave-holders  in  his  back  office,  and  William  Lloyd  Garri- 
son was  being  mobbed  by  the  good  people  of  Boston,  since 
then  evolutionizing  themselves  into  a  state  of  sympathy 
and  sentiment  regarding  the  poor  people  of  color,  there 
came  to  our  town  certain  zealous  men  to  hold  an  anti- 
slavery  convention,  the  first  in  central  Ohio.  The  use  of 
the  church  in  which  town  meetings  were  held  being  refused 
for  the  purpose,  my  father  offered  his  barn,  a  nice  new 
one,  and  as  yet  unfilled  with  hay,  which  was  gladly  ac- 
cepted. All  went  well  until  the  meetings  were  over.  Then 
as  the  chief  speakers  on  their  horses  were  slowly  wending 
their  way  out  of  town,  a  one-horse  wagon  filled  with  bad 
men  and  bad  eggs  was  seen  following  them.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  vile  odors  which  filled  the  air,  and  the  slimy  sub- 
stance dripping  from  men  and  horses,  not  the  faintest 
shade  of  annoyance  was  seen  on  the  faces  of  the  strangers ; 
not  the  slightest  increase  of  pace  was  discernible. 

They  went  their  way,  these  early  Ohio  martyrs,  none 
the  less  true  though  tamer  perhaps  than  the  fiery  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  who  shouted  to  his  Boston  audience  that 
tried  to  stop  his  speaking,  ' '  Howl  on !  Howl  on !  you  con- 
tumacious curs;  I  speak  to  forty  millions  of  freemen" — 
pointing  to  the  reporters.  He  might  almost  make  it  a 
round  hundred  millions  to-day. 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  85 

And  that  from  Boston's  solid  men  in  Faneuil  hall 
assembled;  too  much  like  the  solid  men  of  San  Francisco 
of  to-day,  our  most  worshipful  apostles  of  high  crime ;  they, 
Boston's  apostles  of  high  crime,  loath  to  offend  the  white 
men  of  the  south,  later  eager  to  place  over  them  these 
same  black  men  to  grind  them  into  the  dust. 

Some  six  years  after  this  black  baptism  of  the  barn,  a 
small  boy  might  have  been  seen,  had  it  not  been  midnight 
and  rather  dark,  driving  a  big  two-horse  wagon  filled  with 
straw  on  the  way  to  Fredonia,  distant  six  miles 
toward  Canada.  It  was  his  first  all-night  out  of  .bed, 
and  the  bumps  of  the  wagon  as  the  old  plow 
horses  followed  the  road  sadly  interfered  with  the 
snatches  of  sleep  taken  at  his  peril  on  the  slippery  seat. 
Why  the  enthusiasts  should  send  forth  this  babe  as 
director-general  of  a  wagon  of  human  estrays  fresh 
from  Kentucky — for  the  straw  was  alive  with  them — 
instead  of  one  of  the  grown-ups  going  himself,  may  not 
be  surmised  unless  it  arose  from  the  well-known  modesty 
of  the  Yankee  in  matters  of  charity  and  good  deeds;  or 
should  the  slave-hunters  catch  on  such  an  errand  a  little 
fellow  like  that,  all  they  could  do  would  be  to  send  him 
home  and  to  bed. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  at  the  time  of  the  discon- 
tinuance of  the  slave-trade  in  1807  negro  slaves  numbered 
nearly  one-fifth  of  the  population  of  the  United  States,  and 
were  fast  increasing,  to  the  peril  of  the  Republic.  The 
Anti-slavery  society  was  formed  in  1833,  under  the 
auspices  of  Arthur  Tappan,  William  Lloyd  Garrison,  and 
Wendell  Phillips.  Public  sentiment,  carrying  with  it  the 
churches,  was  against  the  movement.  "It  hurts  business," 
said  the  thrifty  New  Englander,  the  Quaker  silent  but 
assenting,  "thus  to  stir  up  the  enmity  of  our  customers  in 
the  south,"  forgetting  that  the  American  revolution  hurt 
business,  likewise  the  war  of  1812.  It  was  the  same  cry 
which  we  hear  to-day  in  the  streets  of  our  cities  over  the 
prosecution  of  rich  criminals. 
4 


86  RETROSPECTION 

After  mobbing  those  reformers  the  friends  of  the 
slave-holders  felt  better,  and  later  we  find  New  Eng- 
landers  in  the  front  rank,  fighting  slave-holders,  eman- 
cipating the  slave,  giving  him  the  franchise,  and  taking 
him,  with  all  his  evil  odors,  to  their  sensitive  hearts — meta- 
phorically, though  pausing  in  consternation  before  the 
reality. 

As  for  the  churches,  they  could  be  conducted  on  any 
required  principle,  for  slavery  or  against  it,  according  to 
the  demand.  Pew-holders  can  always  have  any  kind  of 
religion  they  want  and  are  willing  to  pay  for. 

It  was  a  straight-laced  community,  but  by  no  means 
saturnine.  On  the  contrary,  meeting  as  neighbors  they 
were  rather  disposed  to  be  jovial,  old  people  particularly, 
often  making  sport  of  their  ailments  when  they  were  in 
reality  anything  but  a  joke.  Puritan  ancestry  was  still 
insistent  where  conduct  and  belief  were  concerned. 

To  the  ever  unfolding  subconsciousness  of  the  younger 
members  of  this  society  the  atmosphere  was  perhaps  a 
little  stifling,  but  upon  the  elders,  whose  women  were 
positive  and  argumentative  while  the  men  were  deliberate 
and  judicial,  the  effect  was  exhilarating. 

In  an  atmosphere  of  serious  concern,  slowly  and  rever- 
ently along  the  rough  streets  on  the  Sabbath-day  walked 
the  towns-people  to  the  village  church;  from  the  distant 
farms  came  worshipers  in  springless  wagon,  or  mounted 
on  a  pillion  behind  the  saddle  for  the  matron  or  maid. 
Always  present  were  men  and  women  well  along  in  years, 
meeting  at  the  meeting-house  being  part  of  the  last  drama 
of  their  declining  years. 

It  was  scarcely  a  day  of  rest,  this  New  England  Sab- 
bath, whether  in  Massachusetts  or  Ohio,  what  with  physical 
and  psychological  purifications,  head-scrubbing  and  heart- 
cleaning,  private  prayers  morning  and  night,  family 
prayers  morning  and  night,  two  sermons,  a  Sunday  school 
and  some  sort  of  evening  meeting.  Yet  the  Ohio  pilgrims 
were  long  since  emancipated  from  the  blue-laws  of  Con- 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  87 

necticut,  which  forbid  that  any  one  on  the  Sabbath-day 
should  travel,  cook,  kiss,  shave,  walk  or  ride,  except  to 
meeting,  buy  or  sell,  dine  out,  or  wink,  except  rev- 
erently. 

They  were  a  century  away  from  those  halcyon  days  of 
enforced  religion  and  the  fiercer  forms  of  persecution. 
Yet  without  stocks  and  the  whipping-post  there  were 
still  ways  enough  left  by  which  unbelievers  and  back- 
sliders could  be  made  to  suffer.  From  the  more  repulsive 
forms  of  their  ancient  beliefs,  as  predestination,  election, 
and  infant  damnation  they  were  slowly  emancipating 
themselves;  they  had  much  left  to  learn  and  unlearn,  and 
one  or  two  centuries  were  scarcely  sufficient  to  wear  away 
the  stern  rectitude  inherited  from  their  ancestors. 

Other  infamies,  or  shall  I  say  infirmities,  were  absent, 
as  the  debtors'  prison,  the  witch-ducking  pond,  though 
Luther's  personal  devil  sometimes  displayed  himself; 
while  yet  to  arrive  were  applied  steam  and  electricity,  the 
telegraph,  telephone,  railroad,  sewing-machine,  automobile, 
farm  machinery,  gas  and  water  systems,  and  graft.  Later 
quite  liberal  views  obtained;  the  bass-viol  was  allowed  in 
church,  a  young  man  bowing  it  during  singing  and  read- 
ing dime  novels  behind  it  during  service. 

Though  as  a  whole  full  of  the  cool  illogical  antis  an<l 
isms  of  the  day,  and  faithful  to  doctrinal  religion  as  ex- 
pounded by  their  good  pastor,  they  were  delightfully  in- 
dividual and  independent  of  thought  at  times.  More  'than 
one  mother  as  she  gazed  at  her  infant  was  heard  to  ex- 
claim, "You  can  say  .what  you  like,  but  I  cannot  believe 
that  my  babe  will  be  forever  punished  for  sins  it  never 
committed." 

It  was  an  intensely  political  and  patriotic  community, 
the  men  often  riding  twenty-five  miles  to  Columbus  to 
hear  campaign  speeches.  And  when  the  presidential  elec- 
tion came  around,  a  Roman  carnival  was  a  tame  affair 
beside  it.  I  well  remember  the  campaign  of  1840 ;  with  one 
pf  our  own  Qhjo  men  as  the  whig  candidate,  Granville, 


88  RETROSPECTION 

with  all  her  many  other  graces  and  virtues  being  intensely 
whig. 

On  the  day  appointed  for  a  grand  celebration  an  elab- 
orate procession  marched  to  Newark,  the  county  seat,  dis- 
tant six  miles,  with  ceaseless  blare  and  oratory,  with 
barbecue,  hard  cider  and  fist  fights,  and  songs. 

"Hurrah  for  Tom  Corwin  the  wagoner's  boy,"  and 
then  for  Harrison,  who  lived  in  a  log  cabin  and  drank 
hard  cider, 

"And  Tippecanoe  and  Tyler,  too, 
And  with  'em  we'll  beat  little  Van,  Van,  Van, 
He's  a  used  up  man, 
And  with  'em  we'll  beat  little  Van." 

At  an  early  hour  the  procession  formed  in  the  village 
square  under  a  jointed  liberty-pole  270  feet  high.  There 
were  log-cabins  on  wheels,  some  of  them  drawn  by  twenty 
yoke  of  oxen,  crowned  with  wreaths  and  decorated  with 
ribbons;  Indian  camp-fires  and  skulking  warriors;  canoes 
thirty  to  fifty  feet  long,  each  out  of  a  single  tree;  barrels 
of  hard  cider,  that  wickedest  of  tipples,  on  tap,  with  cup 
attached ;  ginger-bread  and  lemonade,  pie  and  cheese,  roast 
fowl,  boiled  ham,  nutcakes,  coffee,  and  endless  like  things 
to  eat  and  drink  lasting  for  the  festival  all  day  and  far 
into  the  night. 

With  bands  of  music,  banners  unfolded,  and  shout  and 
song,  men  and  boys,  mounted  and  on  foot,  marked  with 
the  pilgrimage  a  day  long  to  be  remembered.  Another 
day  came  also,  a  year  later,  when  funeral  obsequies  were 
held  for  the  dead  president  with  similar  intensity. 

A  common-school  education  at  public  expense  in  those 
days  did  not  include  modern  languages,  Greek  or  San- 
scrit, piano-lessons,  dancing  or  sword  exercises,  but  was 
rather  confined  to  those  studies  of  which  some  practical 
use  could  afterward  be  made. 

I  aspired  first  to  go  through  college,  and  then  to  Con- 
gress, my  father  giving  his  consent,  even  to  my  achieving 


SOME  OHIO  YANKEES  89 

the  presidency.  But  we  were  not  rich;  there  were  no  rich 
men  in  those  days,  all  being  honest.  And  long  years  of 
study  would  impose  a  burden  upon  my  parents  for  my 
maintenance  to  which  I  could  not  subject  them.  I  soon 
saw  that  to  accomplish  much  in  any  direction  I  must  put 
money  in  my  purse.  A  little  would  suffice,  but  that  little 
was  necessary. 

At  this  juncture  fate  interposed  in  the  form  of  a  young 
red-headed  Buffalo  bookseller,  fine  of  form  and  feature, 
good-hearted,  ambitious  in  his  calling,  and  free  of  speech. 
Visiting  our  town,  where  lived  his  parents,  he  fell  in  love 
with  my  charming  eldest  sister,  and  some  time  after  their 
marriage  he  offered  me  a  place  in  his  store  as  clerk,  which 
I  accepted,  thus  terminating  my  studies  at  the  academy, 
and  my  life  in  Ohio. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE      CALL     OF      GOLD 

fcfc""TT  looks  like  gold,"  said  Sutler. 

1  He  poked  his  finger  through  it,  took  up  a  lump 
and  bit  it,  laid  it  on  the  anvil  and  hammered  it.  He 
dropped  acid  on  it;  it  stood  all  the  tests. 

"It  is  gold,  very  sure,"  quietly  observed  the  Swiss; 
and  there  was  no  smile  upon  his  face,  no  gleam  of  triumph 
in  his  eye. 

"My  Gord!"  cried  Marshall,  "and  I  can  fetch  you  a 
hatful  of  it." 

It  was  in  the  morning  of  the  27th  of  January,  1848, 
three  days  after  the  specks  of  yellow  in  the  tail-race  had 
attracted  the  attention  of  the  mill-builders.  Marshall  had 
ridden  in  from  Coloma,  some  forty-six  miles  distant,  during 
the  night,  sleeping  part  of  the  time  in  the  chaparral. 

The  two  men  were  radically  different  in  form  and  con- 
struction, physically  and  psychologically.  Marshall  was 
a  big,  burly,  coarse-grained  west- American  jack-of -all- 
trades,  a  mixture  of  Methodist  and  Mormon,  spiritualistic 
tendencies  mingling  with  his  many  minor  superstitions. 
Among  his  assistants  in  setting  up  a  saw-mill  for  Captain 
Sutter  were  some  of  Sam  Brannan's  disciples,  and  certain 
deflections  from  the  missionaries  in  Oregon. 

John  A.  Sutter  was  a  German  Swiss,  small  in  stature, 
educated  and  refined,  of  a  retiring  disposition,  but  filled 
with  ambition  in  which  visions  of  empire  faintly  mingled. 
He  left  home  in  1834.  He  never  told  me  why,  but  per- 
mitted me  to  infer  that  the  doses  of  Calvinism,  as  admin- 
istered by  parental  authority,  were  a  little  too  strong 

90 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  91 

for  him,  especially  when  interfering  with  unorthodox 
love. 

He  studied  America  for  four  years  in  the  Santa  Fe 
country.  He  realized  the  significance  of  the  frontier,  both 
sides  of  it,  as  it  drifted  slowly  westward  from  the  Atlantic 
seaboard ;  he  saw  the  potentialities  of  the  Plains.  Crossing 
to  the  Pacific  he  took  a  look  at  the  Sandwich  islands,  as 
the  Hawaiian  group  was  then  called;  whence,  proceeding 
to  Alaska,  he  dropped  down  the  coast  to  San  Francisco  bay, 
and  paddled  up  the  Sacramento  to  the  head  of  tidewater, 
where  he  rested  content.  He  found  there  all  that  he 
wanted,  more  than  he  had  expected  ever  to  see  combined 
in  one  spot,  absolute  primevalism  with  soil  and  climate  un- 
surpassed, bright  sunshine  under  the  snowy  Sierra,  and 
the  grassy  plain  alive  with  nature's  best  creations — ani- 
mals, wild  fowl,  and  fishes  for  food,  and  a  native  humanity 
of  just  the  consistency  for  his  purpose,  mild,  tractable, 
and  with  proper  handling,  useful. 

Obtaining  from  Mexico  a  grant  of  ten  leagues  of  land 
as  a  gift,  with  another  possible  ten  leagues,  he  built  a  fort, 
and  set  in  motion  his  dusky  retainers  toward  the  achieve- 
ment of  a  personal  principality  in  this  charming  lotus- 
land,  where  he  might  be  near  the  white  men  yet  remaining 
apart  from  all  complex  organizations  and  systems. 

He  knew  what  he  wanted,  and  it  was  not  gold.  Some 
men  are  made  that  way,  howsoever  difficult  for  Wall  street 
to  understand. 

The  call  of  gold,  yes,  blind  and  beastly  as  a  god,  some 
it  calls  up  and  others  it  calls  down. 

We  should  scarcely  expect  in  the  history  of  the  world  to 
see  emphasized  as  a  great  event  the  finding  of  gold  in  the 
tail-race  of  Sutter's  saw-mill.  We  should  hardly  classify 
it  with  such  happenings  as  the  Crusades,  the  discovery 
of  America,  or  the  battle  of  Waterloo.  Yet  when  we  can 
clearly  see  in  this  gold  discovery,  with  the  developments  in 
Australia,  in  British  Columbia,  and  in  all  northwestern 


92  RETROSPECTION 

America  which  followed,  an  intellectual  awakening,  a  new 
departure  in  the  world's  advancement,  we  cannot  look 
upon  the  affair  as  one  devoid  of  special  significance. 

Three  events,  pregnant  with  future  unfoldings,  came 
simultaneously,  no  one  of  them  known  to  or  dependent 
upon  either  of  the  others.  The  war  with  Mexico  was  not 
brought  on,  nor  the  acquisition  of  California  secured  be- 
cause of  gold  in  the  Sierra  foothills,  as  the  fact  was  not 
known  at  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo.  The  line  of 
steamships  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard  across  the  famous 
Isthmus  to  San  Francisco  and  our  northwest  coast  posses- 
sions was  not  established  because  of  the  acquisition  of  new 
domain  on  the  Pacific,  though  it  may  have  been  done 
anticipatory  thereof.  The  first  steamer  for  Oregon  was 
arrested  in  her  course  at  San  Francisco  by  the  startling 
intelligence  of  the  acquisition  of  California  and  the  discov- 
ery of  gold,  and  she  proceeded  north  no  farther.  The 
three  events  coming  together  exercised  a  powerful  impulse 
on  industrial  development,  but  without  the  discovery  of 
gold  the  other  two  would  have  made  but  a  slight  impres- 
sion upon  the  affairs  of  the  world. 

The  inrush  of  miners  gave  California  the  opportunity 
of  adopting  a  constitution  and  applying  at  once  for  admis- 
sion as  a  state,  without  undergoing  the  usual  probationary 
territorial  period,  but  the  question  of  slavery  arose  caus- 
ing delay.  It  was  for  more  slave  territory  that  southern 
politicians  had  brought  on  the  war  with  Mexico,  and  not 
for  gold  to  be  gathered  by  world-wide  adventurers. 

It  is  not  safe  to  say  that  but  for  the  gold  California 
would  have  been  admitted  in  time  as  a  slave  state,  for  I 
can  scarcely  believe  it  to  be  true ;  but  there  is  no  question 
that  with  the  strong  southern  influence  in  Congress,  and 
the  plot  carefully  prearranged  on  the  Pacific  coast,  mat- 
ters might  have  been  delayed  and  manipulated  so  as  to 
bring  about  the  most  serious  consequences  but  for  the  large 
mixed  population  that  suddenly  appeared  in  California 
who  were  opposed  to  slavery. 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  93 

As  it  was,  the  state  of  California  started  off  promptly 
with  a  good  constitution  and  a  good  law-making  body, 
which  soon  earned  the  cognomen  of  "the  legislature  of  a 
thousand  drinks."  Whether  this  number  was  regarded  as 
large  or  small,  and  whether  it  was  a  thousand  a  day  or  a 
thousand  for  the  entire  term,  the  record  does  not  state.  A 
thousand  would  give  only  five  or  ten  drinks  to  each  person, 
which  for  some  would  be  scant  allowance  for  even  half  a 
day. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  gold  event  gave  rise  to  many 
political  and  economic  developments;  that  its  effect  on 
industrialism  was  as  great  as  the  effect  of  the  Crusades  on 
feudalism.  It  revolutionized  values  throughout  the  world, 
and  infected  every  civilized  nation  with  an  aggressive 
economic  unrest.  It  rendered  obsolete  ancient  usages  and 
established  new  methods.  Great  in  war  as  in  peace,  if  it 
did  not  actually  save  to  the  United  States  the  union,  the 
steady  inflow  into  New  York  of  five  millions  of  dollars  a 
month  during  the  entire  period  of  hostilities,  and  before 
as  well  as  after,  saved  the  country  from  dire  distress  if  not 
from  financial  ruin. 

The  effect  of  the  gold  discovery  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
though  mild  at  first,  in  the  end  was  magical,  bringing  to- 
gether at  San  Francisco  bay  representatives  from  all 
nations,  and  huddling  humanity  in  promiscuous  heaps 
along  five  hundred  miles  of  Sierra  foothills.  It  opened 
to  all  mankind  a  new  field  of  romance,  with  endless 
economic  potentialities,  establishing  on  the  ocean  lines  of 
steamships,  and  on  the  rivers  inland  traffic,  overspread- 
ing the  land  with  agriculture,  with  irrigations  and  re- 
clamations, weaving  a  network  of  railways  throughout 
western  North  America,  and  hastening  forward  slow  civil- 
ization a  hundred  years  with  its  blessed  ages  of  gold  and 
grain  and  graft. 

The  time  was  ripe  for  something  new  to  appear  in  the 
world's  work.  The  timidity  of  an  earlier  day  was  for- 
gotten; adventure  was  in  the  blood.  The  advantages  of 


94  RETROSPECTION 

industrial  specialization  were  beginning  to  be  seen;  suc- 
cess in  this  new  field  of  untried  issues  came  rather  by  con- 
centration of  mind  and  energies  on  some  one  thing,  and 
becoming  expert  in  that,  than  by  dissipating  energy  and 
enthusiasm  in  dipping  into  many  things.  Skilled  labor 
came  to  the  front  and  with  it  fresh  adventure  and  wider 
speculation. 

The  first  to  feel  this  impulse  as  in  the  olden  days  was 
transportation.  Whatever  else  there  was  to  be  done  men 
must  be  moving  about.  Hence  on  all  the  lines  of  over- 
land travel  emigrant  trains  were  to  be  seen,  hundreds  of 
whitehooded  wagons  and  creaking  prairie  schooners,  and 
thousands  of  cattle  and  horses — the  Oregon  movement 
repeated  but  with  greater  intensity  than  ever.  Over  the 
central  and  southern  routes  to  California  soon  appeared 
lines  of  stages,  in  which  passengers  rode  for  twenty-five 
or  thirty  consecutive  days  and  nights,  the  fare  being  at 
the  rate  of  about  ten  dollars  a  day.  The  Butterfield  and 
Salt  Lake  stages  reduced  the  time  from  the  Missouri  to 
Sacramento  to  twenty  days.  When  the  pony  express  was 
established,  letters  were  brought  from  New  York  in  ten 
days,  an  accomplished  marvel  of  speed. 

Numberless  sails  appeared  upon  the  ocean  and  craft  of 
every  sort  on  inland  waters.  Shipbuilding  felt  the  im- 
pulse in  a  manner  never  before  dreamed  of,  resulting  in 
the  beautiful  Baltimore  clipper,  a  work  of  art  as  of  ocean 
architecture  never  surpassed  before  or  since.  Every  line 
a  line  of  beauty;  every  curve  a  curve  for  speed.  They 
used  frequently  to  make  the  passage  via  Cape  Horn  in 
sixty  days,  turning  out  the  cargo  without  a  stain. 

The  moneyed  men  of  New  York  came  out  of  their  back 
offices  and  took  a  look  around.  They  did  not  stop  to  build 
new  steamers,  but  took  whatever  was  available,  giving  to 
the  old  craft  fresh  paint  and  new  names.  For  the  Pacific 
side  several  new  steamships  were  built  of  a  pattern  more 
spacious  and  pleasant  for  tropical  travel  than  any  which 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  95 

has  yet  been  seen ;  vessels  of  the  Golden  Gate  type,  two  or 
three  decks  above  water,  made  thus  high  owing  to  the  early 
reputation  of  this  ocean  for  quiet  waters,  which,  however, 
may  lash  themselves  into  fury  upon  occasion. 

Thus  it  was  that  when  the  traveller  from  New  York  had 
reached  and  crossed  the  Isthmus  and  was  seated  in  his 
steamer  chair  under  the  awning  of  the  well-polished  upper 
deck  of  one  of  these  new  ocean  palaces,  awaiting  the  trans- 
ference of  mails  and  baggage,  the  soft  air  from  aromatic 
isles  lulling  to  rest  and  reflection,  little  wonder  that  he 
fancied  the  worst  of  the  voyage  was  over,  and  that  the 
remaining  two  weeks'  sail  under  such  charming  conditions 
would  be  nothing  but  a  pleasure  trip. 

He  had  endured  enough  on  the  Atlantic  side  from  the 
avarice  and  rascality  of  the  New  York  magnates,  who  had 
hastened  to  throw  into  the  traffic  all  the  old  craft  avail- 
able, sail  and  steam,  ill-fitted  and  ill-provisioned,  and  were 
selling  tickets  for  the  Isthmus,  and  even  for  San  Francisco, 
often  without  a  sleeping  berth  on  the  Atlantic  side  and  no 
means  of  continuing  their  journey  on  the  Pacific. 

Most  of  these  travellers  were  inexperienced,  many  of 
them  fresh  from  their  country  homes,  and  the  boats  put 
upon  the  Panama  and  Nicaragua  routes  by  Rowland  and 
Aspinwall,  and  others  of  that  stamp,  were  supposed  to  be 
safe,  when  the  owners  well  knew  they  were  not.  Many 
thousand  passengers  were  thus  thrown  into  the  pest-hole 
of  Panama,  there  to  contract  lingering  disease  or  merci- 
fully to  die  quickly,  by  the  shipping  men  of  New  York,  in- 
different alike  to  the  miseries  of  the  voyage  or  the  inter- 
vening deaths  laid  at  their  door. 

One  instance  out  of  many  was  the  Central  America,  an 
old  condemned  steamer  whose  name  had  been  several  times 
changed,  which  sank  on  her  way  up  in  September,  1857, 
with  579  returning  Californians  and  about  four  millions 
in  treasure. 

Over  400  of  the  finest  specimens  of  American  manhood 
were  sent  on  this  occasion  alone  to  their  deaths;  $100,000 


96  RETROSPECTION 

profits  on  the  voyage  went  into  the  pockets  of  the  ship 
owners. 

A  Havre  liner  was  lost  from  collision  about  the  same 
time,  and  it  was  remarked  the  difference  in  the  behavior  of 
the  respective  passengers  and  crews.  On  the  French  ves- 
sel pandemonium  reigned.  Officers  and  sailors,  and  such 
of  the  passengers  as  were  able  to  fight  their  way  through, 
rushed  for  the  boats,  leaving  the  weaker  ones  to  perish. 

On  the  American  vessel  calm  courage  and  order  pre- 
vailed. The  orders  of  the  officers  were  promptly  obeyed. 
Rough  bearded  men  quietly  drew  their  revolvers  and 
formed  lines  between  which  the  women  and  children  were 
conducted  to  the  boats,  and  not  until  the  last  of  them 
were  thus  bestowed  did  the  men  consider  themselves.  The 
boats  being  already  filled  they  had  only  to  go  bravely 
down  to  their  deaths,  while  a  thousand  loved  ones  at  home 
awaited  their  coming.  Captain  and  officers  were  also 
sacrificed  to  the  cupidity  of  those  whose  names  are  at  this 
day  sometimes  mentioned  in  honor. 

How  they  felt,  these  same  rich  men,  while  passing  the 
plate  in  church  the  next  Sunday  no  one  knows,  but  prob- 
ably they  were  reconciled  to  the  dispensation  of  provi- 
dence, provided  the  ship  was  properly  insured. 

And  the  late  heart-rending  disaster  of  the  Titanic 
shows  that  Anglo-Saxon  courage  and  chivalry  has  in  no 
wise  diminished  in  half  a  century  when  America's  fore- 
most and  wealthiest  men  could  calmly  take  their  place 
among  those  doomed  to  die  that  the  frivolous  French  maid 
and  Sicilian  fish-wife  might  live. 

It  was  a  tame  enough  affair,  so  it  seemed  at  the  time, 
this  finding  of  gold  by  the  Oregon  interlopers  and  Mor- 
mon renegades.  All  around  was  the  quiet  of  the  wilder- 
ness, all  save  the  voices  of  nature.  The  secret  of  the  Sierra 
had  been  kept  long  and  faithfully,  and  it  came  quietly 
before  the  world,  not  with  the  rush  of  wings  or  blare  of 
trumpets  so  important  a  discovery  might  have  justified, 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  97 

the  knowledge  of  gold  in  California.  A  score  of  times  sim- 
ilar reports  had  been  heard  of  places  elsewhere  in  Amer- 
ica, some  of  them  even  in  the  United  States,  and  little 
having  come  of  them  little  attention  was  given  to  new 
announcements. 

Coolly  and  critically  Captain  Sutter  reviewed  the  situa- 
tion. He  knew  that  he  was  ruined  in  so  far  as  the  pur- 
pose for  which  he  came  was  concerned.  Should  the  mines 
prove  permanent,  opportunities  for  vast  wealth  lay  before 
him,  but  not  the  peace  isolation  brings. 

Ardent  for  empire  he  had  wandered  west,  had  entered 
the  unknown,  had  touched  here  and  there,  and  passed  on. 
He  had  found  what  he  wanted ;  he  did  not  know  this  until 
some  time  after  he  had  found  it.  An  island  would  not 
have  sufficed,  nor  yet  lands  torrid  or  frigid,  nor  yet  a 
country  of  half  civilized  heathen.  From  such  places  voices 
of  the  mountain,  voices  of  the  desert  warned  him  away. 
The  land  of  his  adoption  must  be  a  plain,  a  valley  of  good 
air,  good  soil,  and  properly  watered.  It  must  be  abso- 
lutely primitive,  inhabited  if  at  all  only  by  an  aboriginal 
race  of  a  low  vitality  with  a  disposition  not  too  fierce. 

He  had  found  the  spot  here  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Sacramento — blessed  name  this  that  was  given  to  the  stream 
by  the  friars  though  they  had  seen  it  only  at  its  mouth. 
The  land  was  free,  and  yet  he  could  secure  with  it  titles, 
valid  titles  if  he  possessed  sufficient  strength  to  make  them 
so,  all  to  be  had  for  the  asking. 

The  second  ten  leagues  he  seemed  to  want  more  than 
he  had  coveted  the  first.  Strange  how  this  Teutonic  land- 
hunger  increases  with  possession,  limitless  lands  within  his 
grasp  and  his  hands  could  hold  so  little !  And  he  so  little ! 
Why  would  he  have  more  land?  Did  he  want  the  world? 
Yes,  if  he  could  carry  it  away  and  keep  it.  But  he  could 
not  keep  it.  Though  he  later  laid  out  and  established 
on  this  river  bank  a  great  city,  the  capital  of  a  great 
state,  every  foot  of  it  originally  his  own,  yet  he  could  not 
keep  it. 


98  RETROSPECTION 

He  was  doomed,  he  and  his  life's  dream,  doomed  by 
the  infernal  power  of  this  gold,  doomed  to  die  in  poverty, 
the  last  of  his  Sacramento  leagues  lost  to  him;  to  die  in 
a  dreary  Pennsylvania  hamlet,  where  the  writer  of  these 
pages  found  him,  and  talked  with  him,  listening  to  his  last 
lament  during  these  his  last  days,  and  offering  such  poor 
consolation  as  he  was  able. 

He  saw,  this  shrewd  Swiss,  shrewd  though  so  weak,  as 
in  a  vision,  as  he  gazed  upon  this  gold  and  thought  of  its 
transmuting  properties — he  saw  vanish  his  dream  of  em- 
pire, his  kingship  over  some  thousands  of  naked,  mild- 
mannered  red  men;  he  saw  his  lands  usurped,  bands  of 
lawless  in-rushing  gold-hunters,  squatting  here  and  there 
and  everywhere,  killing  and  scattering  his  great  droves  of 
cattle,  killing  and  demoralizing  his  people. 

"Ah,  yes!"  he  complained  pathetically  to  a  stranger 
who  later  came  down  out  of  the  mountains  soliciting  relief 
for  snow-bound  emigrants,  ' '  those  poor  fellows,  I  send  them 
beef,  I  send  them  venison,  then  they  kill  and  eat  all  my 
good  Indians!" 

Great  is  gold,  the  god  of  gods,  who  visiteth  with  ven- 
geance his  votaries;  great  above  all  gods,  who  destroyeth 
all  those  that  faithfully  serve  him! 

So  was  stricken  down  this  greatest  of  Sacramento  mag- 
nates, although  no  votary;  stricken  down  and  ruined  by 
the  tidings  shouted  out  by  these  flakes  of  gold  picked  up 
one  afternoon  in  January,  1848,  by  Mormons  creeping  over 
toward  the  Saints  rest  at  Salt  Lake,  and  those  fellows  who 
had  drifted  in  from  Oregon, — stricken  down,  this  broad- 
minded  constructionist,  by  the  overwhelming  weight  of 
his  economic  environment. 

Yet  the  ruin  of  Sutter  came  slowly,  slowly  for  those 
swift  days  of  transformation.  At  first  he  expanded,  be- 
came great,  Sutter 's  fort  famous  the  world  over  as  the 
fortress  defending  illimitable  wealth, — leagues  of  land  with 
vast  droves  of  cattle  tended  by  dusky  servitors;  miles  of 
metal  in  the  mountains;  a  great  city  standing  by  a  broad 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  99 

stream — bearing  up  alike  inland  crafts  and  ocean  vessels, 
all  his  yet  not  his,  for  he  could  not  hold  it ;  the  gods  of  the 
Sierra,  the  demons  of  its  gold,  shouting  in  their  glee  at  the 
confusion  they  had  wrought,  at  the  first  grand  coup  thus 
early  made  upon  this  nearby  Swiss  adventurer. 

Then  for  a  moment  silence  fell  on  Coloma  and  the  Foot- 
hills around;  after  that  a  great  noise;  and  the  saw-mill 
site  remained  a  site  while  Mormon  and  Oregonian  gathered 
gold,  Mormon  hallooed  to  Mormon,  the  brethren  taking 
their  stand  at  and  around  a  little  island  in  the  river,  call- 
ing it  Mormon  island.  Through  them  next  to  be  stricken, 
and  for  the  moment  palsied  by  this  gold  discovery,  was 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter  day  Saints,  whose 
banner  of  Holiness  to  the  Lord  was  here  on  the  American 
river  struck,  and  the  flag  of  fealty  to  the  devil  hoisted  in 
its  stead. 

Ere  long  the  news  was  carried  down  the  river  to  Sonoma, 
where  General  Vallejo  held  sway,  and  to  sleepy  San  Fran- 
cisco, a  hamlet  of  mixed  white  men  and  Mexicans,  store- 
keepers, cattle-men,  priests,  politicians,  and  loafers,  the 
alleged  gold  discovery  awakening  little  interest. 

It  was  only  when  plethoric  bags  of  the  yellow  stuff, 
coarse  and  fine,  with  some  great  chunks  of  it  picked  up 
in  the  placers  w.ere  displayed  in  the  towns  about,  that  the 
somnolent  Pacific  awoke  to  some  faint  realization  of  what 
had  come  to  pass. 

Although  always  the  friend  of  Americans  and  Ameri- 
can progress,  Vallejo  like  Sutter,  and  in  common  with 
most  of  the  Spanish  Californians,  suffered  from  the  in- 
rush following  the  finding  of  gold.  Their  wealth  was  in 
land  and  cattle,  and  they  were  loosely  served  by  the  mild- 
est of  Indians.  They  occupied  the  fertile  coast  valleys 
which  had  formerly  been  held  by  the  missions,  now  some 
fifteen  years  secularized.  The  gold  mines  were  far  away ; 
they  had  no  desire  to  participate  in  the  harvesting  at  the 
Foothills;  they  felt  the  adverse  influence  of  the  gold  in 
the  pressure  of  strangers  on  their  privacy,  the  inroads  on 


100  RETROSPECTION 

their  lands,  the  scattering  of  their  stock,  and  the  demorali- 
zation of  their  Indians. 

Accustomed  to  half-tropical  airs,  they  and  their  pro- 
genitors, they  were  not  strong  enough  successfully  to  cope 
with  northern  peoples.  Gradually  came  upon  them  the 
evil  days,  and  they  were  practically  ruined  before  they 
knew  it. 

Beyond  the  precincts  of  California,  slowly  during  the 
winter  of  1848-9,  filtered  the  news  through  the  mountains, 
the  winds  carrying  it  over  the  seas  with  specimen  bags  of 
gold-dust  and  gold  nuggets,  until  by  the  early  spring,  the 
revelation  came  with  full  force  upon  the  minds  of  men 
that  this  new  region  of  gold  was  above  the  common,  or 
mythical,  and  a  veritable  land  bearing  substantial  metal. 

With  time  and  distance  the  movement  increased;  men 
of  commerce  and  finance,  those  of  the  cities  and  the  in- 
dustrial centres,  saw  more  clearly  than  the  less  experienced 
people  near  at  hand  the  economic  revolution  that  must 
ensue  should  this  accession  to  the  world's  currency  prove 
to  be  as  great  as  it  now  promised. 

Ships  came  in  from  every  considerable  port  on  the 
globe,  until  five  hundred  of  them  lay  at  anchor  in  San 
Francisco  bay,  more  than  ever  were  there  at  one  time  be- 
fore or  since,  most  of  them  quickly  deserted  on  arrival, 
officers  and  crew  being  off  for  the  mines. 

In  the  mines ;  what  shall  I  say  of  the  complex  conditions 
there?  Out  of  ethnic  combinations  never  before  so  much 
as  dreamed  of  was  quickly  evolved  a  new  society,  nay, 
more,  a  new  race,  for  the  developments  of  that  day  remain, 
and  will  never  pass  away.  Every  conceivable  thing  in 
the  shape  of  humanity  was  present,  good  and  bad,  white 
black  and  yellow,  hearts  of  heaven  and  hearts  of  hell,  all 
mixed  up  and  stirred  together  in  a  great  cauldron  of  so- 
cial unrest,  without  law,  without  restraint,  all  cut  loose 
from  home,  from  civilizing,  humanizing  influences,  all  here 
at  liberty  to  let  loose  the  deities  or  demons  that  possessed 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  101 

them  without  question  and  without  restraint.  And  the 
impression  thus  imprinted  on  the  soul  of  humanity  still 
remains ;  go  to  the  uttermost  end  of  the  earth  and  you  will 
find  it  there. 

Australia  came  forward  with  a  great  yield  of  gold  a 
few  years  later,  when  there  was  another  upheaval,  and  an- 
other at  South  Africa,  and  others  all  over  western  North 
America.  These  were  in  due  time  followed  by  other 
demons  and  demonstrations  of  cupidity  and  human  greed, 
displayed  at  this  day  in  a  mighty  menagerie  of  oil-men, 
iron-men,  labor-lords,  railway-kings,  and  money  gods. 

Many  companies  or  economic  associations  were  formed 
before  leaving  the  east,  mostly  for  mining,  but  some  few 
for  commercial  or  manufacturing  purposes.  They  some- 
times chartered  a  vessel  to  carry  them  with  their  ma- 
chinery or  other  effects  to  their  destination,  or  took  pas- 
sage in  sailing-vessel  or  steamer  in  a  body. 

It  was  a  trying  ordeal,  men  of  various  minds  and  moods, 
assertive  and  independent,  and  finding  conditions  so  strange 
and  interests  so  diverse  it  was  no  wonder  that  the  com- 
panies broke  up  on  arrival,  not  necessarily  in  enmity,  yet 
each  preferring  to  go  his  own  way. 

New  economic  developments  and  new  industrial  re- 
lationships sprang  up  on  every  side,  while  all  commercial 
and  financial  arrangements  must  be  adjusted  anew. 

Extensive  shipments  of  goods  were  made  on  a  venture 
from  nearly  every  port  the  world  over  to  San  Francisco 
bay,  consigned  to  some  merchant  or  commission  house  or 
to  master.  It  was  a  precarious  business,  very  like 
gambling.  If  the  goods  were  wanted  and  there  was  a 
scarcity  they  brought  fabulous  prices;  if  not  wanted  they 
could  not  be  sold  or  scarcely  given  away,  as  this  would 
involve  drayage  and  storage,  and  might  amount  to  more 
than  the  goods  would  ever  fetch. 

It  was  easy  to  corner  the  market,  especially  in  small 
things.  Some  capital  might  be  required  to  purchase  all 


102  RETROSPECTION 

the  house-lining,  and  the  speculation  would  be  attended 
by  risk,  but  a  little  money  would  buy  all  the  tacks,  without 
which  the  cloth  \vould  be  of  no  use.  So  with  regard  to 
oil  and  lamps,  the  wicks  alone  controlled  the  situation. 

Enterprising  San  Francisco  brokers  would  often  go 
out  in  a  pilot  boat  beyond  the  Golden  Gate  to  meet  and 
board  an  incoming  ship  with  a  much  desired  cargo  and 
purchase  the  whole  of  it  before  the  ship  came  to  anchor. 

So  many  desirable  and  undesirable  articles  being  thus 
constantly  thrown  upon  the  market  led  to  the  establish- 
ment of  numerous  auction  houses  where  large  and  small 
invoices  were  disposed  of  daily. 

Thrilling  romances  might  be  sent  spinning  out  of  this 
classic  epoch,  of  which  I  can  give  here  only  the  background. 

The  native  Californians  reveled  in  this  plethora  of 
gold.  General  Vallejo's  house  at  Sonoma  was  the  frontier 
post  in  those  days.  It  was  always  open  to  strangers, 
whether  immigrants  or  returning  miners.  A  considerable 
business  in  cattle,  horses,  and  farm  products  was  trans- 
acted there. 

A  cavalier  of  the  old  school,  handsome  and  debonair, 
it  pleased  his  very  soul  to  fling  to  the  man  who  held  his  horse 
a  Mexican  ounce,  or  a  like  coin  to  the  barber  and  tell  him 
to  keep  the  change.  On  the  hall  floor  of  his  house,  at  one 
time,  stood  a  row  of  pickle-jars  filled  with  gold-dust  un- 
protected night  and  day.  At  another  time,  and  not  so 
very  long  afterward,  this  same  Sonoma  dwelling  housed  a 
bankrupt,  a  prince  among  bankrupts,  who  once  controlled 
every  foot  of  the  dunes  on  which  San  Francisco  now  stands, 
and  all  the  vast  region  beyond  up  to  the  Oregon  lino,  and 
who  after  dispensing  an  empire  to  impecunious  strangers 
for  nothing,  lived  out  his  time  and  died  happily  without 
a  dollar  in  the  world  he  could  call  his  own. 

A  real  or  affected  indifference  to  money  matters  in 
detail  pervaded  all  classes.  Miners  would  leave  their  gold- 
dust  on  the  shelves  of  their  vacant  cabin  in  tin  cups,  or  in 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  103 

dishes,  without  any  attempt  to  conceal  it.  Merchants 
would  sweep  into  the  till  a  pile  of  mixed  large  and  small 
coin  without  counting  it. 

For  a  while  amounts  less  than  a  dollar  were  not  recog- 
nized in  writing  up  accounts,  or  in  buying  and  selling. 
Then  drinks  at  the  bar  could  be  obtained  at  fifty  cents 
each,  and  later  at  twenty-five  cents.  It  was  a  long  time 
before  anything  could  be  bought  for  a  "bit"  or  a  "pica- 
yune,"— terms  brought  in  from  the  south,  especially  from 
the  New  Orleans  country,  a  bit  signifying  twelve  and  a 
half  cents  and  a  picayune  half  that  amount. 

None  the  less  potential  for  being  proximate  was  the 
achievement  of  gold  in  founding  new  institutions  and  or- 
ganizing societies  to  meet  the  various  conditions. 

The  first  impulse  toward  a  fusion  of  the  better  elements 
in  early  California  life  arose  from  the  kind-hearted  benevo- 
lence exercised  one  toward  another  among  these  strangers 
thus  strangely  thrown  together,  and  practised  alike  in  the 
towns  and  in  the  mines. 

In  1846  there  were  in  the  state  2000  Americans  and 
2000  Mexicans;  in  1848,  population  6000;  in  July,  1849, 
15,000,  in  December  92,597;  in  1852,  according  to  census 
taken,  269,000,  including  30,000  Indians,  20,000  Chinese, 
and  2000  negroes.  With  the  movement  to  the  west  coast 
gold  mines  the  United  States  centre  of  population  shifted 
81  miles  westward  before  1860. 

Few  were  satisfied  without  a  trial  at  gold-mining;  in- 
deed, such  was  the  sole  object  of  all  those  who  came  during 
that  year,  though  by  many  the  mines  with  their  trials  and 
uncertainties  were  soon  abandoned  for  agriculture  or  busi- 
ness in  the  towns. 

Family  expenses  in  San  Francisco  in  1849  were — 
house  rent  $200  to  $300  a  month ;  servants,  housemaid  $100, 
cook  $150 ;  water  $150 ;  milk  $150 ;  wood  $40  a  cord ;  flour 
$50  a  barrel.  Wild  game  meat  was  plentiful  and  cheap; 
potatoes  $1  a  pound;  for  the  rest  almost  everything  was 
a  dollar  a  pound, — except  some  things  which  were  two 


104  RETROSPECTION 

dollars  a  pound.  Interest  on  money  five  to  fifteen  per 
cent,  a  month. 

It  was  an  uncomfortable  California,  this  winter  of 
1849-50.  It  rained  almost  every  day,  and  all  day,  and  all 
night,  so  it  seemed  to  those  caught  in  the  mountains,  who 
had  to  sleep  on  the  bare  soggy  earth.  Some  of  them  had 
a  blanket,  or  half  a  one ;  some  found  a  thicket  to  crawl  into, 
some  a  log  to  crawl  under,  some  had  food  to  eat.  Toward 
the  last  the  snow  melted  in  the  mountains,  and  through  the 
swollen  streams  the  water  made  its  way  down  into  the 
valleys,  overspreading  the  plains,  drowning  the  cattle,  ob- 
literating the  incipient  town  sites,  and  washing  away  the 
emigrant  camps  which  lined  the  roadways. 

How  did  they  live  ?  They  did  not  live,  not  all  of  them. 
Many  died,  parents  and  children,  and  for  the  first  time 
since  they  were  born  there  were  some  thousands  in  the 
city  and  country  who  had  all  the  gold  they  wanted.  All 
who  were  able  came  down  to  the  Bay,  for  the  interior 
towns  were  wiped  out,  even  Sacramento  was  navigable 
only  in  boats. 

San  Francisco  streets  were  bogs  swallowing  vehicles 
and  breeding  fever.  The  inhabitants  gathered  firewood 
in  the  chaparral,  brought  water  in  boats  from  Sausalito, 
and  ate  bear  and  deer  meat,  with  rabbits  and  salt  pork. 
Potatoes  were  scarce  at  a  dollar  a  pound. 

Tobacco  had  been  five  dollars  a  pound;  it  was  cheap 
enough  before  the  winter  was  over,  however,  as  cargo  after 
cargo  arrived,  sent  out  by  speculators  who  Beemed  to 
imagine  tobacco-chewing  a  special  aid  to  gold-digging. 
The  ships  must  be  unloaded,  and  there  were  no  longer 
warehouses  in  which  to  store  the  surplus;  whereupon 
wagon-loads  or  boat-loads  of  fancy  plug  in  boxes  were 
dumped  at  the  street  crossings  for  the  benefit  of  pedes- 
trians, thus  serving  a  good  turn  for  the  citizens. 

The  little  town  was  full  of  good  citizens  that  winter. 
The  well  cared  for  the  sick,  those  who  had  food  gave  to 
the  hungry ;  they  improvised  a  city  hospital,  and  organized 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  105 

a  Stranger's  Friend  society.  All  were  strangers  that 
winter,  or  nearly  so,  and  all  were  friends ;  whether  a  stranger 
or  not  benevolence  showed  no  distinction. 

The  April  of  1906  saw  suffering,  but  at  least  the  ground 
was  firm  enough  for  the  people  to  sleep  on  without  its 
giving  way  under  them,  and  they  generally  had  something 
to  chew  for  breakfast  besides  plug  tobacco.  The  years  of 
'49  and  '50  could  boast  their  conflagrations  as  well. 
Cholera  and  intermittent  fever  also  came,  brought  in  by 
ships  as  well  as  by  overland  immigrants,  and  there  were 
burial  places  on  the  hillsides  and  in  the  valleys  of  the 
dunes.  An  officiating  clergyman  speaks  incidentally  of  a 
burial  on  Russian  hill,  where  he  walked  in  the  rain  sinking 
to  his  knees  in  the  mud  at  every  step,  and  returning  home 
with  the  fever. 

All  through  this  strange  time,  as  I  have  said,  in  the 
midst  of  cupidity  and  crime,  underlying  all  was  a  sub- 
stratum of  deep  human  sympathy  and  kindness.  One 
rule,  one  faith,  one  principle  pervaded  all,  finding  ex- 
pression in  these  words:  whatever  the  emergency  it  must 
be  met,  whether  shipwreck,  flood,  or  famine.  There  were 
always  present  the  strong  to  care  for  the  weak.  Or  if  a 
wave  of  wickedness,  an  episode  of  high  crime,  there  were 
always  enough  just  men  present  to  overcome  the  vicious. 

The  cholera  reached  its  height  in  the  autumn  of  1850, 
anxiety  and  exposure  supplying  many  victims  in  the  mines 
as  well  as  in  the  towns.  Sacramento  and  San  Francisco 
both  suffered  severely. 

Religion  was  respected,  so  was  three-card  monte ;  in  the 
towns  the  Sabbath  was  observed  more  religiously  than  now, 
though  by  many  made  a  day  of  sport. 

Fashion,  dominant  everywhere,  ruled  in  the  mines  with 
sterner  sway  than  in  the  cities,  even.  A  slouched  hat, 
woolen  shirt,  and  breeches  tucked  into  high  top  cowhide 
boots  were  safer  in  the  city  than  top  hat,  white  shirt,  and 
patent  leather  boots  in  the  mines.  To  the  economic  disciple 
of  Confucius  boots  were  boots  when  he  learned  to  wear  them  j 


106  RETROSPECTION 

he  used  to  take  the  largest  pair  in  the  case,  the  price  of  all 
sizes  being  the  same,  so  as  to  get  the  most  for  his  money. 

If  the  flush  times  presented  a  seamy  side  in  loud  royster- 
ings,  free  pistoling,  and  easy  hangings;  if  also  a  pathetic 
side  appeared,  and  there  was  at  hand  plenty  of  pathos, 
there  was  always  on  the  surface  jollity  and  good  fellow- 
ship. 

An  eastern  gentleman  in  shiny  top  hat  and  black  coat 
landed  from  the  steamer  one  soft  hazy  morning,  and  seeing 
a  rough  though  honest  looking  fellow,  red-bearded,  with 
long  tangled  hair,  sang  out  pleasantly  but  plainly,  "Here, 
you!  here's  a  half  dollar,"  pitching  him  a  coin,  "take  this 
bag  up  to  the  hotel,  will  you?"  Quick  as  a  flash  came  the 
response,  "Here,  you!  here's  a  dollar,  take  it  up  yourself." 

Before  houses  were  built,  or  the  sand  anchored  in  place 
by  the  grass  roots,  the  winds  from  the  ocean,  which  set  in 
every  summer  morning  about  ten  o'clock,  had  a  clear  sweep 
over  the  northern  end  of  the  Peninsula,  and  took  advantage 
of  it  by  stinging  the  face  with  the  flying  sand  and  playing 
havoc  with  things  movable.  A  witness  in  the  Limantour 
land  suit  when  asked  what  he  was  doing  at  Yerba  Buena 
at  that  early  day  said,  "I  thought  I  would  buy  some  lots 
there." 

"Well,  did  you  buy  "them?" 

"Who,  me?     No." 

"Why  not?" 

"  I  '11  tell  you  why.  I  wouldn  't  have  'em.  I  was  walk- 
ing along  down  by  the  water  and  the  wind  blew  my  hat  off, 
and  I  couldn't  catch  it  in  less  than  half  a  mile,  and  I  said 
I  wouldn't  live  in  the  damned  place." 

In  one  of  my  visits  to  Coloma,  I  asked : 

* '  Who  is  the  lord-aboriginal  of  this  domain  ? ' ' 

"George  Washington." 

"Tell  George  Washington  to  come  to  me  and  get  five 
dollars." 

Next  morning  a  prostrate  form  was  seen  sleeping  in 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  107 

the  hotel  yard  face  downward  in  the  grass.  Stirred  gently 
with  the  foot,  his  Excellency  sat  up,  with  a  grunt,  rolled 
some  cut  plug  tobacco  in  the  form  of  a  cigarette,  and  strik- 
ing a  match  on  the  sole  of  his  bare  foot,  began  to  smoke. 

"You  high  muck-a-muck  here  George?" 

"Yas,  gotambread?" 

"Ah,  your  Excellency  has  not  breakfasted.  Kindly  go 
to  the  kitchen  and  tell  them  I  sent  you." 

He  had  trotted  in  from  his  camp  twenty  miles  away 
during  the  night. 

He  spent  the  day  entertained  and  entertaining.  Among 
the  questions  asked: 

"Your  people  burn  their  dead,  do  they  not,  George?" 

"No,  no  burn  'em  now.  One  time  burn  'em.  Mlis'- 
nary  man,  he  say,  burn  'em,  no  come  up,  no  burn  'em, 
come  up;  we  no  burn  'em  now." 

After  the  first  year  of  flush  times,  while  yet  the  popiv 
lation  was  rapidly  increasing  and  before  reaction  set  in, 
the  laying  out  of  town-sites  was  of  frequent  occurrence. 

Places  which  for  a  time  were  of  some  pretensions  were 
New  York-of-the-Pacific,  at  the  junction  of  the  San  Joaquin 
river  and  Suisun  bay ;  Boston,  at  the  junction  of  the  Ameri- 
can and  Sacramento  rivers;  Vernon  on  Feather  river,  and 
Sutter  on  the  Sacramento.  A  hundred  mining  camps 
sprang  into  life;  a  few  of  them  remained  and  became 
towns,  but  the  most  of  them  soon  disappeared,  leaving 
neither  name  nor  mark  of  any  kind  to  denote  their  brief 
existence.  Three  soon  became  conspicuous  as  points  of 
departure  for  the  northern,  central,  and  southern  mines 
respectively;  that  is  to  say  Sutter 's  Sacramento;  Marys- 
ville,  so  named  from  an  early  Mary  on  Yuba  river;  and 
Charles  Weber's  Stockton. 

Quite  an  epidemic  of  speculation  sprang  up  at  near 
and  distant  points. 

The  instincts  of  the  town-site  hunters  which  led  them 
to  and  beyond  Carquinez  strait  were  by  no  means  mislead- 


108  RETROSPECTION 

ing,  for  there  is  no  spot  on  earth  more  favorable  for  an 
imperial  city  than  that. 

Thus  commerce  and  industries  in  California  displayed 
their  vagaries  in  common  with  all  else.  The  presence  of 
gold  did  not  permanently  enhance  the  value  of  the  land, 
but  it  hastened  its  occupation  and  development. 

Nations  are  made  as  forests  grow,  a  perpetual  dying 
down  and  rising  up.  All  along  the  Foothills,  in  the 
vestiges  of  the  mining  camps  and  in  the  towns  below  are 
remnants  of  the  old  days,  human  debris,  broken  on  the 
wheel  of  adventure,  failures  they  are  commonly  called, 
and  are  in  so  far  as  they  themselves  are  concerned,  but 
not  failures  in  the  building  of  the  commonwealth,  for  the 
commonwealth  is  established  by  those  who  fail. 

Shall  we  call  the  life  of  a  Napoleon  one  of  success  or 
failure?  If  the  former,  then  we  may  ask  what  is  success 
and  what  is  it  worth,  ministering  as  it  does  to  personal 
greed  and  public  debauchery;  if  the  latter,  then  failure  is 
more  successful  than  success. 

The  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  company  was  an  influen- 
tial factor  in  the  early  affairs  of  the  Pacific  coast.  At 
first  a  benefit  to  the  people  who  supported  it,  later  a  curse 
to  the  country  when  the  railway  took  possession  and  used 
it  to  assist  in  defrauding  the  people. 

Land  titles  were  a  source  of  endless  litigation,  as  well 
in  relation  to  Mexican  grants  as  to  pueblo  lands  and  the 
mines.  As  soon  as  anything  became  conspicuous  in  value 
it  was  not  difficult  to  find  disputants.  So  much  was  ac- 
quired by  simple  seizure  that  squatter  rights  became  an 
influential  element  of  possession,  yet  there  was  but  little 
disturbance  in  regard  to  these  titles  in  San  Francisco  until 
after  the  district  assembly  had  been  dissolved  by  Governor 
Riley. 

Titles  to  property,  or  the  lack  of  titles,  were  early  and 
for  a  time  continuously  a  source  of  trouble  to  many,  and 
proved  a  fruitful  field  for  the  lawyers.  Chief  among 
these  in  land  cases  was  Gregory  Yale,  a  ripe  scholar  and 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  109 

able  lawyer,  and  a  gentleman  in  any  one  of  his  ever-vary- 
ing moods;  short,  thick  set,  and  demonstrative;  drank  like 
a  fish  but  was  never  drunk;  face  fat  and  red  as  a  lobster, 
mind  alert  and  sharp  as  steel,  and  tongue  as  eloquent  as 
any  that  ever  charmed  a  court. 

In  the  country  were  the  Mexican  allotments,  and  in  the 
town  alcalde  grants,  all  disturbed  by  claimants  of  many 
sorts,  as  settler,  squatter,  purchaser,  and  thief.  Lacking 
valid  titles  were  city  slips,  water  lots,  pueblo  grants,  and 
a  score  of  others. 

Another  incident  upon  which  turned  the  destinies  of 
the  nation,  the  writer  of  this  Retrospection  cannot  pass  by 
without  mention.  For  one  may  truthfully  claim,  as  I 
have  already  done,  that  but  for  the  loyalty  of  California  as 
well  as  her  gold  during  the  civil  war  it  would  have  gone 
hard  with  the  federal  government. 

But  why  California  more  than  some  one  of  the  other 
states  ?  Because,  first,  San  Francisco  was  the  headquarters 
of  the  army  of  the  Pacific.  Secondly,  because  of  the  iso- 
lation of  the  western  coast,  with  no  available  communica- 
tion save  the  coaches  from  Independence.  Thirdly,  be- 
cause of  the  ease  with  which  California  could  have  thrown 
off  allegiance  to  the  federal  union,  so  many  of  secession 
proclivities  being  present  who  would  gladly  have  declared 
for  independence  and  slavery.  How  well  the  two  words 
sound  together!  General  Johnston,  at  the  head  of  the 
army  in  California  at  the  time,  was  himself  chief  of  rebels. 
Fourthly,  as  some  think  of  the  great  hearts  then  throbbing 
in  California  for  freedom  and  a  united  country,  so  others 
will  remember  the  gold  we  gave  and  place  it  to  our  credit 
on  congressional  records,  and  the  pages  of  presidential 
messages,  even  though  the  proverbial  ingratitude  of  re- 
publics should  not  fail  when  asked  for  a  temporary  re- 
mission of  duties  on  lumber,  as  a  deliverance  from  the 
unjust  exactions  of  material-men  combined  against  the 
rebuilders  of  the  city  after  the  catastrophe  of  1906. 


110  RETROSPECTION 

Missionaries  of  ardent  imaginations  thought  they  saw 
in  a  journey  to  Washington  by  Marcus  Whitman  the  sav- 
ing to  the  United  States  of  Oregon,  a  land  never  lost  or 
saved  by  any  one,  least  of  all  by  Mr.  Whitman. 

E.  R.  Kennedy  has  written  a  book  to  show  how  "E. 
D.  Baker  saved  the  Pacific  States  to  the  Union,"  a  pre- 
tence somewhat  startling  to  those  who  knew  Mr.  Baker  as 
a  seedy  politician  who  sometimes  paid  a  bill,  a  man  of  little 
weight  or  standing  in  the  community,  though  a  good  talker, 
and  as  a  soldier  reckless  enough  to  meet  death  early  in 
the  civil  war. 

Foremost  in  every  good  work  was  Thomas  Starr  King, 
who  probably  did  more  than  any  other  one  man  to  make 
sure  of  the  loyalty  of  California.  Night  after  night  he 
thrilled  the  hearts  of  the  multitude  that  thronged  his 
lecture-room  with  eloquent  appeals  for  a  free  and  united 
country. 

At  the  first  Sanitary  Commission  meeting  held  in  San 
Francisco,  in  September,  1862,  at  Platt's  hall,  after  stirring 
speeches  by  Eugene  Casserly,  Frederick  Billings,  Edward 
Tompkins,  and  others,  Starr  King  arose  and  said :  ' '  After 
what  you  have  heard,  words  of  mine  were  superfluous. 
Deeds,  however,  are  in  order,  though  no  one  will  be  asked 
for  a  subscription  here  to-night.  But  when  the  time  comes 
— turning  to  Mayor  Teschemacher  who  presided, — "the 
president  will  give  one  thousand  dollars,  the  Pacific  Mail 
Steamship  company  will  give  one  thousand  dollars,  the 
Ophir  Mining  company  will  give  one  thousand  dollars,  and 
every  vice  president  on  the  platform — there  are  about 
seventy — will  give  five  hundred  dollars  each." 

Thus  was  set  the  pace  of  this  philanthropy.  The  sev- 
eral persons  and  properties  gave  about  as  Mr.  King  had 
suggested,  and  these  contributions  considering  the  men  and 
the  times,  were  equivalent  to  ten  times  the  same  amounts 
to-day.  Thus  did  California,  while  the  rebel  southern 
state  whose  brutal  senator  treated  with  insult  our  request 
for  protection  from  avaricious  material-men  at  the  time 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  111 

of  the  fire  of  1906  was  playing  the  part  of  renegade  and 
traitor.  Our  lawmakers  had  sold  themselves  to  the  spoilers, 
and  our  state  had  no  redress. 

The  reaction  of  California  on  the  eastern  states  was  in 
some  respects  not  unlike  the  reaction  of  the  New  World  on 
Spain.  There  was  a  general  awakening  to  the  importance 
of  the  present  and  the  probabilities  of  the  future.  In 
Spain,  manufactures  which  at  first  were  stimulated  by 
the  influx  of  gold  went  over  to  France  and  England  when 
idleness  and  luxury  came.  In  the  United  States  com- 
merce and  industries  everywhere  started  up  afresh,  and 
although  cotton  manufactures  drifted  southward  and 
westward,  the  civil  war  came  on  to  give  a  still  further 
impetus  to  business  before  it  had  time  greatly  to  languish, 
though  over-trading  began  to  be  felt  in  the  early  fifties. 

As  the  gold-seekers  began  to  return,  some  with  well- 
filled  pouches  but  more  with  lame  excuses  for  failure,  a 
feverish  desire  for  speculation  overspread  the  country  and 
led  to  all  sorts  of  industrial  ventures. 

Queer  conceptions  at  home — home  always  meant  the 
eastern  states — were  formed  from  various  reports  of  the 
conditions  of  things  in  California,  often  without  much 
discernment  between  life  in  the  towns  and  in  the  mines. 

For  example,  the  impression  formed  of  life  in  the 
mines  from  the  earliest  pictures  and  reports  were  hatless 
bearded  men,  in  woolen  shirt  and  cowhide  boots,  standing 
in  the  water  and  washing  out  gold  from  a  tin  pan.  Or  it 
might  be  cooking  in  the  open,  before  a  brush  hut,  or  wash- 
ing dishes — though  for  that  matter  the  dishes  were  often 
left  unwashed — or  at  a  stag  dance  in  the  saloon,  or  in  a 
hanging  affair  or  a  shooting  scrape ;  so  that  at  the  New  Eng- 
land homestead,  some  day  when  a  fine  groomed  figure 
rushed  in  clasping  mother  and  sisters  in  his  arms,  the  father 
with  uplifted  hands  might  well  exclaim,  "Well,  I  swan, 
if  you  don't  look  jest  like  other  folks!" 

He  could  not  avoid  a  little  swagger,  this  returned  Cali- 


112  RETROSPECTION 

fornian,  as  he  "chucked"  his  metal  money  about,  regard- 
ing "shinplasters"  with  contempt  and  refusing  to  handle 
copper  cents.  No  wonder  that  visions  of  opulence  arose 
in  the  minds  of  those  hitherto  content  with  moderate  aspira- 
tions as  this  lordly  individual,  fresh  from  the  gold-fields, 
affected  to  hold  their  poor  riches  in  such  light  esteem, 
though  he  himself  might  not  have  ten  dollars  left  in  his 
pocket. 

As  a  rule  the  master  minds  of  the  fifties  and  sixties 
first  served  a  shorter  or  longer  apprenticeship  in  the  mines. 
But  whether  for  a  shorter  or  longer  period,  the  head  soon 
got  the  better  of  the  hands,  the  latter  refusing  to  dig,  the 
former  demanding  to  do  all  the  work. 

D.  0.  Mills  and  Lloyd  Tevis  met  there  and  talked  about 
the  future,  building  air  castles  in  the  river  bed,  and  lay- 
ing out  plans  over  the  sluice-box,  speculating  as  to  what 
they  would  do  in  the  city  when  they  had  gathered  some 
gold.  Meeting  later  they  compared  notes,  and  remarked  how 
nearly  their  lives  had  been  squared  to  their  earlier  ambi- 
tion, and  how  much  more  satisfactory  the  gold-fleecing  of 
men  in  town  was  to  the  argonaut  business  in  the  moun- 
tains. 

Collis  P.  Huntington  was  there  and  soon  claimed  every- 
thing in  sight  as  his  own,  and  by  the  mere  force  of  his 
dominant  will  and  shrewd  tongue  was  able  to  hold  a 
sufficient  share  of  it.  Stanford  was  there,  only  to  look 
wise  while  others  did  the  work.  Flood  and  O'Brien,  also 
Mackay  and  Fair,  came  forward  later,  but  were  none  the 
less  in  evidence.  Sharon  and  Ralston  manipulated  banks 
and  mines  in  unison,  yet  were  at  arms  length  apart;  one 
went  up  and  the  other  down,  the  latter,  by  playing  deity 
at  large,  was  caught  at  last  in  the  toils  of  his  former  drink- 
sellers.  Lucky  Baldwin,  not  so  lucky  in  love  as  in  lucre, 
made  and  lost  many  fortunes,  yet  leaving  enough  for 
claimants  to  quarrel  over.  Mike  Reese,  grub-staker,  put 
up  money  against  the  other  fellow's  life  and  sent  him 
forth  to  find  gold.  Mike's  title-deeds  were  the  bulkiest, 


THE  CALL  OF  GOLD  113 

his  features  were  the  most  brutal,  and  his  raiment  the 
filthiest  of  any  in  the  city. 

Another,  bankrupt  banker,  wherefore  a  rich  man;  a 
ladies  man,  wherefore  a  book  printed  and  published  by  one 
of  his  ladies,  entitled  Love  Life  of  an  Ancient  Charmer, 
brought  shame  to  him,  and  the  gay  though  gray  deceiver 
sought  to  repress  it,  but  with  indifferent  success.  Strange  a 
man  so  conspicuous  in  high  society  and  so  iron-bound  in  low, 
could  frame  such  silly  stuff  as  this  that  in  his  Love  Life 
he  pours  forth  to  his  dilapidated  divinity.  When  the 
civil  war  broke  out  he  disappeared  for  a  short  time,  and 
on  his  return  he  called  himself  general;  why,  he  did  not 
say. 

Samuel  Brannan  did  not  himself  work  in  the  mines; 
working  his  Saints  was  pleasanter  and  more  profitable. 

Many  of  the  best  business  men  of  the  cities  had  their 
fling  in  the  Foothills,  as  Peter  Naylor,  D.  J.  Oliver,  W.  E. 
Rowland,  A.  A.  Austin,  G.  B.  Post,  W.  H.  Davis,  J.  B. 
Bidleman,  Thomas  H.  Selby,  George  B.  Gibbs,  H.  F.  Will- 
iams, A.  R.  Flint,  G.  E.  Tyler,  J.  W.  Tucker,  E.  H.  Parker, 
W.  H.  Mosher,  John  C.  Fall,  of  Marysville,  H.  A.  Roberts, 
of  Sacramento,  and  hundreds  of  others. 

Such  were  the  real  representative  men  of  the  mines, 
in  greater  or  less  degree,  with  greater  or  less  force  and 
purpose — a  gathering  most  remarkable  in  quality  and 
variety,  and  one  such  as  had  never  before  been  seen. 
These,  graded  up  to  the  United  States  supreme  court,  and 
down  into  the  ditch,  and  out  into  the  eternal  darkness, 
were  the  true  men  of  the  mines,  and  not  the  dilettante 
gamblers  and  gunners  of  argonaut  story. 


CHAPTER  VII 

AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER 

Years  Before  the  Mast;  and  because  the  boy  was 
of  Harvard  and  the  Mast  of  Boston  the  book  lived, 
and  still  lives,  immortal  upon  Doctor  Eliot's  five- foot  shelf. 

There  was  nothing  remarkable  about  the  boy,  or  the 
mast,  or  the  voyage.  Scores  of  vessels  had  traded  along 
the  coast  of  California  before  the  year  1835  for  hides  and 
tallow,  dry,  crackling,  bad-smelling  cattle-hides  and  greasy 
tallow,  and  found  nothing  romantic  or  specially  instructive 
in  the  traffic.  The  missions  were  still  in  their  glory,  be- 
fore the  despoiling  of  secularization  had  come  to  them, 
while  the  bright-eyed  dusky  senoritas  might  still  be  seen 
peeping  out  from  arbors  of  luscious  grapes, — ardent 
grapes  and  ardent  senoritas,  all  too  dusky  maidens  with 
maidenly  yearnings  for  something  white  of  skin  to  marry. 

It  was  some  time  in  March,  1852,  that  I  first  landed  in 
San  Francisco.  I  was  not  yet  twenty  years  of  age,  and 
too  absolutely  fresh  and  inexperienced  to  be  anything  but 
honest.  Why  my  late  employer,  supposed  to  be  possessed 
of  ordinary  bookselling  sanity,  should  have  sent  me  at 
such  an  age,  to  such  a  place,  and  for  such  a  purpose  as  to 
sell  and  publish  books,  I  could  never  imagine. 

That  he  had  married  my  sister  was  scarcely  a  sufficient 
reason,  for  during  the  entire  four  years  I  was  with  him  in 
the  Buffalo  bookstore,  or  until  his  younger  brother  came 
to  relieve  me  of  the  infliction,  he  put  in  train  and  kept  in 
motion  a  most  extraordinary  nagging  and  petty  persecu- 
tion such  as  set  my  sensitive  soul  on  fire,  and  kept  it  ablaze 
during  all  these  tormenting  days  and  years, 

114 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  115 

Also  I  felt  it  all  to  be  so  unjust,  for  I  was  on  my  metal 
to  do  my  best.  I  was  ambitious  and  conscientious,  not  too 
amiable  or  respectful;  yet  in  my  efforts  to  get  forward  I 
found  him  always  in  the  way,  a  snarling  post  of  obstruction. 

I  threw  up  the  situation  and  went  home,  but  I  was  not 
to  escape  so  easily.  He  took  too  much  pleasure  in  my 
misery  to  lose  it  in  that  way.  So  when  he  called  me  back, 
knowing  as  I  did  that  at  heart  he  was  a  good  fellow,  kind 
and  liberal,  and  that  he  applied  to  me  his  erosive  methods 
only  because  he  thought  them  the  right  way  in  which  to 
bring  up  boys,  I  returned. 

And  I  met  my  reward.  It  was  in  the  form  of  the 
aforesaid  younger  brother  of  his  seated  at  the  table  and 
receiving  on  his  devoted  head,  with  an  air  of  impudent  in- 
difference, the  caustic  criticisms  hitherto  so  liberally  be- 
stowed upon  me;  for  it  was  in  the  family  circle  that  the 
master  was  pleased  to  shower  upon  us  his  business  bene- 
dictions. 

The  brother  was  quite  lame,  with  hair  of  a  rustier  red 
than  his  brother's;  hearty,  heartless,  immoral,  and  by  na- 
ture bad  throughout.  Older  than  I,  much  older  in  sin,  I 
did  not  greatly  care  for  his  society,  but  I  felt  always  grate- 
ful for  the  peace  I  found  through  his  vicarious  sufferings 
at  the  dinner-table. 

The  evolution  of  population,  the  blending  of  races 
following  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  began  with 
the  journey  thither,  which  exercised  as  marked  an  influ- 
ence upon  the  young  and  inexperienced  adventurer  as 
anything  that  followed. 

The  world  was  larger  then  than  now,  and  the  mind  of 
man  was  smaller.  To  the  verdant  youth  fresh  from  in- 
land pastures  ocean  life  was  a  revelation;  to  an  unen- 
lightened inhabitant  of  the  wintry  north  tropical  life  was 
a  garden  of  the  Hesperides.  No  one  ever  left  New  York 
by  any  route  and  arrived  at  San  Francisco  the  same  per- 
son, but  the  changes  wrought  in  mind  or  imagination  by 
the  strange  sights  along  Panama  way  and  across  the 


116  RETROSPECTION 

Isthmus  were  more  sudden  and  overwhelming  than  those 
experienced  in  the  long  monotonous  voyage  round  South 
America,  or  even  in  the  vivifying  scenes  of  overland 
phenomena,  with  its  return  to  primitive  life,  and  the  ever 
varying  displays  of  shifting  frontiers  and  a  dissolving 
wilderness. 

Life  on  the  steamer, — generally  overcrowded  with  its 
three  grades  of  passengers,  cabin,  second  cabin,  and  steer- 
age, with  stifling  tropical  heat  and  sickly  smells,  poor  food 
badly  served  and  the  jarring  thud  of  the  never-resting 
machinery;  always  every  day  to  see  the  same  tired  and 
tiresome  faces  of  the  passengers  and  the  coarse  ill-natured 
features  of  officers  and  crew — was  productive  of  many 
original  reflections. 

I  sailed  from  New  York  in  February,  and  was  about  six 
weeks  on  the  way,  spending  two  of  them  on  the  Isthmus. 
Three  or  four  days  brought  our  steamer,  the  Ohio,  to 
Havana.  Shedding  there  the  outer  skin  of  rusticity,  our 
passengers  were  transferred  to  the  steamer  George  Law, 
which  came  from  New  Orleans  to  meet  us  there  and  carry 
us  to  the  Isthmus,  stopping  at  Jamaica  for  coal,  so  that  on 
this  my  first  voyage  I  saw  more  of  the  West  Indies  than 
in  any  one  of  my  several  subsequent  voyages  made  in  the 
capacity  of  San  Francisco  merchant. 

The  observant  eye  of  the  youthful  traveller  was  quickly 
taken  by  the  dark  lowering  features  and  light  summery 
dress  of  the  Spanish  men,  and  the  bright  features  and 
sombre  robes  of  the  women.  Attention  was  also  attracted 
by  the  all-compelling  voiture,  with  its  large  wheels  and 
small  mule  at  the  end  of  the  long  shafts,  which  gave  the 
little  beast  all  the  room  it  required  for  kicking  when 
prodded  by  its  large  heavy  driver,  sometimes  astride  its 
back,  sometimes  perched  upon  the  whiffletree. 

With  a  dusty  tramp  to  the  bishop's  garden  and  a 
frugal  repast  the  day  came  to  a  close,  and  with  it  my 
first  insight  into  Spanish  colonial  life.  I  was  quite  ready 
for  a  continuance  of  the  voyage. 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  117 

As  I  sat  on  a  coil  of  rope  watching  our  passengers 
coming  up  the  gang-plank  of  the  George  Law  prior  to  sail- 
ing, I  was  unwittingly  a  witness  to  certain  kindergarten 
lessons  in  graft,  the  first,  but  I  am  sorry  to  say  not  the 
last  similar  experience  of  many  of  the  young  Americans  of 
that  day. 

Cigars  were  the  chief  temptation  then.  For  twenty 
dollars  a  thousand  better  cigars  could  be  purchased  in 
Cuba  than  fifty  dollars  would  buy  in  California,  or  than 
could  now  be  elsewhere  obtained  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  dol- 
lars a  thousand.  Naturally,  therefore,  the  California  bound 
bought  cigars,  one,  or  two,  or  three  thousand  each,  and 
when  they  inquired  of  the  affable  seller  as  to  the  export 
duty,  "Oh,"  he  said,  "just  give  the  customs  officer  on 
board  half  a  dollar  and  you  will  not  be  troubled." 

What  I  saw  as  I  sat  there  was  this  officer,  jabbering  and 
wildly  gesticulating  with  outstretched  arms  as  he  pocketed 
the  half  dollars  thrust  upon  him,  one  after  another,  by  the 
passengers,  each  with  his  load  of  cigars.  Afterward  I 
learned  that  this  petty  bribery  was  but  a  part  of  a  system 
extending  throughout  Spanish  America,  and  indeed 
throughout  the  Spanish  world,  it  being  the  custom  of 
masters  of  vessels  on  entering  a  port  to  pay,  in  the  form  of 
a  bribe,  one  half  or  one  quarter  of  what  the  duties  would 
amount  to,  or  pay  the  whole  of  the  duties  in  the  legitimate 
way,  as  his  honesty  or  cupidity  dictated.  Afterward  I 
learned  further  that  in  American  ports  there  was  not  so 
much  Spanish  jabbering  and  gesticulating  over  much  larger 
amounts  than  half  a  dollar,  which  were  promptly  pocketed 
all  the  same. 

At  Jamaica,  where  we  stopped  for  coal,  which  was 
carried  on  in  sacks  or  baskets  poised  on  the  head  of  half- 
naked  females  of  ebony  hue,  we  saw  the  African  at  his 
best,  or  worst,  laziness  and  licentiousness  being  the  chief 
characteristics. 

But  they  were  happy.  The  women  enjoyed  their  im- 
morality and  the  men  their  laziness,  especially  the  laziness 
5 


118  RETROSPECTION 

of  officeholding,  where  there  was  little  work  and  much  au- 
thority. 

Here  was  the  result  of  an  experiment  which  had  given 
the  race  an  opportunity  to  vindicate  the  claims  set  up  for 
it  by  the  benevolent,  but  which  they  had  employed  to  little 
purpose.  But  is  it  not  expecting  too  much  of  human  de- 
velopment that  it  should  produce  in  the  unfolding  what  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  germ? 

Arrived  at  the  Isthmus,  preparations  were  made  to 
disembark  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chagres  river  as  usual; 
whereupon  we  were  informed  that  the  Panama  railway  was 
in  operation  for  a  distance  of  five  miles,  and  that  instead 
of  taking  boat  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chagres  we  were  to 
be  landed  at  Colon,  and  carried  over  this  five  miles  of  rails 
for  a  fare  of  five  dollars  each,  paying  the  same  for  boat 
hire  from  the  terminus  of  the  railway  as  we  would  have 
paid  from  the  mouth  of  the  river.  The  latter-day  policy 
of  corporate  honor  was  not  yet  known  in  railway  manage- 
ment. Upon  the  completion  of  this  the  most  remarkable 
road  in  America  the  fare  was  reduced  from  a  dollar  a 
mile  to  twenty-five  dollars  for  forty-eight  miles. 

Were  it  possible  to  write  the  romance  of  the  Isthmus, 
to  tell  the  tales  of  brave  adventure  and  give  the  experiences 
of  priests,  traders,  and  conquerors,  President  Eliot  might 
omit  from  his  list  the  Arabian  Nights,  and  fill  his  entire 
five  feet  from  what  here  might  be  gathered. 

It  was  along  these  shores  that  Columbus  sailed  seeking 
a  waterway  to  India.  Here  Rodrigo  de  Bastidas  traded 
and  Juan  de  la  Cosa  made  explorations;  here  Alonso  de 
Ojeda  and  Diego  de  Nicuesa  indulged  in  their  memorable 
quarrel,  Vasco  Nuiiez  de  Balboa  gaining  the  supremacy. 
It  was  from  this  narrow  neck  of  land,  on  the  25th  day  of 
September,  1513,  that  Balboa  first  saw  the  Pacific  ocean,  into 
which  he  waded,  and  with  drawn  sword,  and  the  bombastic 
declamation  of  the  day  took  possession  for  the  king  of 
Spain  of  all  those  waters,  shores  and  islands.  Building 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  119 

boats  he  fished  for  pearls  at  the  islands  off  Panama,  and 
made  discoveries  up  and  down  the  coast,  affianced  the 
daughter  of  Pedrarias,  the  governor,  who  became  jealous 
of  the  dashing  young  cavalier  and  finally  wrought  his 
ruin. 

It  was  from  here  that  Francisco  Pizarro  sailed  for 
the  conquest  of  Peru,  Gil  Gonzales  for  Nicaragua,  and 
Andres  Nino  for  the  Spice  islands.  It  was  from  Darien 
that  the  several  expeditions  in  search  of  the  golden  temple 
of  Dabaiba  were  made ;( it  was  at  Darien  that  the  Scots 
colony  of  well-born  Scotch  and  English  adventurers  came 
to  grief,  as  we  have  seen.  It  was  from  Nombre  de  Dios 
that  Gonzalo  de  Badajoz  set  out  on  his  expedition  for  the 
South  sea. 

The  mule  trail  from  Nombre  de  Dios  to  Panama  was 
cleared  of  obstruction,  widened  and  erected  into  the  first 
official  interoceanic  roadway  over  which  passed  the  product 
of  the  American  mines  and  the  rich  cargoes  of  the  galleons 
from  Manila  and  China. 

Then  came  the  long  period  of  piracy,  fostered  by  the 
exposed  wealth  on  land  and  the  richly  laden  ships  at  sea. 
There  were  Morgan  and  his  men,  and  Francis  Drake,  and 
Oxenham,  with  endless  thrilling  accounts  of  sacked  cities 
and  captured  treasure  trains. 

"When  Vasco  Nunez  descended  from  the  hill  of  Quare- 
qua  to  gather  in  his  arms  the  great  South  sea,  he  came 
upon  a  collection  of  huts  by  the  water's  edge  which  the 
natives  called  panama,  afterward  seized  and  held  by  Tello 
de  Guzman. 

This  was  the  site  of  old  Panama,  which  in  1517  the 
governor,  Pedrarias  Davilla,  determined  to  make  the  seat 
of  government,  and  entrepot  for  the  gold  and  merchandise 
of  the  Pacific  destined  for  Spain,  with  a  chain  of  posts  to 
Nombre  de  Dios. 

Mention  is  made  of  this  road  and  this  city  by  the 
chronicler  Benzoni,  who  travelled  in  Darien  about  1541. 
He  says  that  the  Panama  hamlet  consisted  of  about  120 


120  RETROSPECTION 

houses  built  of  reeds  and  boards  and  roofed  with  shingles, 
in  and  around  which  lived  4000  people. 

During  the  first  day's  journey  to  Nombre  de  Dios,  the 
road,  about  50  miles  in  length,  was  fairly  smooth,  the  re- 
mainder being  rugged  and  the  streams  almost  impassable 
during  the  rainy  seasons.  The  forests  were  dense  and  for- 
bidding, and  of  the  Benzoni  party  were  twenty  negro 
slaves  to  clear  the  path  of  under-brush  and  fallen  trees. 

Though  doomed  ere  long  to  die,  this  ancient  Panama 
was  destined  first  to  become  the  richest  and  mightiest 
metropolis  in  all  the  two  Americas.  Before  the  end  of  the 
century  the  isthmus  of  Darien  had  become  the  gateway 
between  the  two  seas,  and  Panama  the  most  important 
place  in  connection  with  the  economic  development  of  the 
New  World.  Situated  upon  the  world's  highway,  in  the 
centre  of  the  Spanish  colonial  possessions,  through  its 
portals  must  pass  the  treasures  of  the  northern  and 
southern  coasts,  the  islands  of  the  South  sea  and  of  the 
Indies  beyond.  It  was  the  half-way  house  and  the  toll- 
gate  between  eastern  Asia  and  Europe,  the  mart  of  the 
western  world  where  men  of  all  nationalities  and  colors 
met  and  made  their  exchanges,  the  merchant  princes  of 
the  east  and  the  west,  the  raw  adventurer  outward  bound 
and  the  returned  fortune-seeker,  elated  with  success  or 
broken-spirited  through  failure. 

The  key  to  commerce,  Panama  was  likewise  the  key  to 
political  supremacy.  By  holding  the  Isthmus,  the  king  of 
Spain  held  the  Pacific.  Expeditions  for  conquest  were 
here  fitted  out  where  they  might  fall  back  for  support  and 
supplies.  Without  Panama  Francisco  Pizarro  never  could 
have  conquered  Peru,  still  less  have  held  the  country  in 
the  face  of  the  brave  Manco  Capac. 

The  central  position  and  the  command  of  both  oceans 
which  gave  to  Panama  her  wealth  and  power  also  exposed 
her  to  political  convulsions  and  attack  from  foreign  foes. 
An  insurrection  in  Guatemala,  a  rebellion  in  Pern,  a  change 
of  restrictions  in  Asiatic  trade  were  immediately  felt  at 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  121 

Panama,  and  upon  her  fell  the  heaviest  blows  aimed  by 
the  English,  French,  and  Dutch  in  the  West  Indies  against 
Spain.  The  city  was  several  times  captured  by  pirates 
and  held  for  ransom  or  burned. 

Such  was  the  ancient  original  Panama  of  three  hun- 
dred years  ago;  will  the  Panama  of  the  canal  be  able  to 
make  proportionately  as  brilliant  a  showing  three  hun- 
dred years  hence?  Let  us  hope  that  it  may. 

A  morass  on  either  side  with  deadly  malaria  its  native 
air,  there  had  long  been  talk  of  moving  the  city  of  Panama 
to  a  better  locality;  or  rather  of  obliterating  the  old  and 
building  anew,  for  cities  are  not  among  things  movable, 
unless  under  absolute  or  imperial  rule,  as  in  the  case  of 
Nombre  de  Dios,  where  the  surveyor  reported,  "If  it  might 
please  your  Majesty,  it  were  good  that  the  city  of  Nombre 
de  Dios  be  brought  and  builded  in  this  harbor,"  and  the 
thing  was  done. 

Andagoya  was  not  in  favor  of  the  change.  "God  him- 
self selected  this  site, ' '  he  says,  though  he  does  not  give  the 
source  of  his  information.  And  further,  "There  is  no 
other  port  in  all  the  South  sea  where  vessels  can  anchor 
alongside  the  streets." 

Nevertheless,  upon  the  capture  and  burning  of  the  city 
by  the  pirate  Morgan,  who  also  carried  away  for  sale  or 
ransom  six  hundred  prisoners,  it  was  ordered  by  the  Span- 
ish court  that  the  city  should  be  rebuilt  on  a  new  site  which 
had  been  selected  some  two  leagues  away.  The  new 
Panama  was  laid  out  in  1671  in  the  form  of  a  square,  with 
moat  and  walls  so  costly  that  the  council  in  Spain  wrote 
asking  if  the  fortifications  of  Panama  were  of  silver  or  of 
gold. 

There  were  many  schemes  afloat  for  an  interoceanic 
waterway  prior  to  the  French  failure,  of  which  an  account 
is  given  in  a  subsequent  chapter. 

Among  the  passengers  for  California  were  many  thought- 
less and  careless  young  fellows  giving  little  heed  to  health, 


122  RETROSPECTION 

and  adopting  no  measures  for  its  preservation.  The 
Isthmus  malaria,  in  its  effects  then  called  Panama  fever, 
found  easy  victims.  Embarking  at  night  on  the  river  we 
had  the  full  benefit  of  its  deadly  vapors  before  morning. 
Nevertheless  we  lived — some  of  us. 

These  boys  of  sixty  years  ago,  now  for  the  first  time 
from  home,  young  men  or  men  of  middle  age,  knew  little 
of  the  dangers  from  disease  to  which  they  were  exposed. 
The  general  hygiene  of  the  later  canal  builders  who  lived 
as  safely  here  as  in  the  northern  latitudes  would  have  been 
beyond  their  comprehension. 

It  is  said  of  the  Chinese  who  worked  on  the  Panama 
railway  that  they  died  of  malarial  fever  and  other  diseases 
incident  to  the  climate  in  such  numbers  that  their  bodies 
laid  at  length  would  have  extended  along  the  whole  forty- 
eight  miles  of  track,  and  that  hundreds  hanged  themselves 
for  fear  they  should  die.  The  natives  of  the  island  in  the 
days  of  Columbus,  driven  by  the  Spaniards,  hanged  them- 
selves to  trees  rather  than  work.  The  feeling  in  both  in- 
stances was  similar  yet  not  the  same:  they  were  all  alike 
victims  of  discouragement. 

During  the  time  of  this  my  first  Isthmus  transit,  as 
well  as  in  the  years  that  followed,  all  who  fell  sick  were 
treated  by  their  fellow-travellers,  though  strangers  to  them, 
with  unselfish  kindness.  Only  the  transportation  com- 
pany's officials  and  servants  were  indifferent  or  brutal. 
This  insidious  disease,  thus  picked  up  at  Panama,  remained 
in  the  system  dormant  often  for  months,  and  then  broke 
out  in  virulent  form  in  the  mines,  or  elsewhere.  Some- 
times it  remained  with  its  victims  through  life. 

Forced  to  part  with  their  baggage,  many  of  the  travel- 
lers never  saw  it  again,  piles  of  it  going  to  swell  the  profits 
of  the  native  transportation  contractors. 

Disembarking  at  Gorgona  the  passengers  took  the  trail, 
on  foot  or  mule-back,  twelve  miles  to  Panama.  There  they 
must  remain  for  days  or  weeks  or  months  perhaps,  until 
they  could  find  passage  by  steamer  or  sail,  for  there  were 


AN   ARTLESS    ADVENTURER  123 

always  those  who  came  ill-provided  with  through  transpor- 
tation. 

Gross  impositions  were  practised,  as  I  have  said,  by 
the  New  York  owners  of  the  steamship  lines,  who  some- 
times sold  transportation  to  twice  the  capacity  of  the  ship, 
and  sent  thousands  to  their  death  from  delay  on  the 
Isthmus.  The  steamers  on  the  Pacific  side  were  cleaner 
and  more  commodious,  and  once  safe  on  board  with  berth 
secured,  some  comfort  might  be  found  if  the  vessel  were 
not  overcrowded. 

When  the  traffic  became  settled  the  steamers  from  New 
York  made  the  whole  distance  without  stopping,  and 
managed  to  arrive  at  the  Isthmus  during  the  night  or  in 
the  early  morning.  The  passengers,  mails,  and  fast  freight 
were  at  once  disembarked  and  sent  to  the  steamer  at 
Panama,  which  left  the  same  night.  The  slow  freight,  the 
through  rate  for  which  was  twenty  dollars  a  ton,  fast 
freight  being  double,  was  transferred  between  steamers, 
thus  remaining  over  one  steamer  on  the  Isthmus. 

If  the  journey  to  California  was  a  transmigration  of 
the  soul  the  landing  at  San  Francisco  in  the  early  fifties  was  a 
dump  into  Dante's  inferno.  The  streets  were  slush  knee- 
deep  in  winter,  and  in  summer  the  strong  unobstructed 
ocean  wind  laden  with  fine  particles  of  sand  brought  regu- 
larly every  day  at  ten  o'clock  stinging  to  the  face  and  bad 
words  to  the  tongue.  But  at  intervals  when  the  wind 
ceased,  and  the  slush  subsided,  the  aromatic  air  tinctured 
with  the  salt  of  ocean  came  down  from  the  dunes  through 
the  scraggly  oaks  and  chaparral  like  the  soft  wind  of 
heaven. 

But  if  God  reigned  sometimes  by  day  Satan  ruled  the 
night.  While  all  else  to  the  innocent  adventurers  far  from 
home  was  cold  and  dark  and  dreary  the  great  gambling 
houses,  at  a  rental  of  from  two  hundred  to  five  hundred 
dollars  a  day,  blazed  with  light  and  warmth  and  luxury; 
for  the  whiskey  at  fifty  cents  a  drink  was  not  so  bad  as 


124  RETROSPECTION 

some  these  same  fellows  found  later  in  the  mines,  and 
now  being  unaccustomed  to  its  free  use  a  little  of  it  went 
farther. 

A  San  Francisco  gambling  palace  of  '49  and  '50, — a 
long,  wide  room,  with  deep  vistas  of  tables  covered  with 
green  cloth  and  piles  of  gold  and  clattering  gambling  ma- 
chinery, thronged  with  a  silent  humanity  of  mixed  rough 
bearded  men  in  woolen  shirts  and  slouched  hats,  mount- 
ing upward  in  various  grades,  until  the  gentlemen  in  white 
shirt  and  silk  stovepipe  are  reached.  On  one  side  stands 
a  gorgeous  bar,  a  long  counter  behind  which  mirrored 
walls  reflect  cut  glass,  bright  fluids,  and  fantastic  orna- 
ments, a  dozen  white-coated  ministering  spirits  attending; 
on  the  other  side  a  braying  band  of  music.  The  floor  is 
covered  with  chairs  and  the  walls  with  large  lascivious 
paintings,  the  ceiling  thickly  studded  with  blazing  chande- 
liers. Here  may  the  weary  one,  safe  from  the  cold  out- 
side drizzle,  sit  snug  and  dream  of  home,  or  empty  his 
pockets  at  the  tables,  drinking  at  the  bar  for  courage  and 
luck.  Here  may  he  rise  from  his  reverie  of  home  re- 
turning, of  the  ocean  voyage  back,  the  railway  journey 
following  it,  the  lumbering  omnibus  ride  to  his  door,  the 
shout  of  greeting,  the  joyous  inrush,  the  outstretched  arms, 
and  the  clasping  heart  to  heart  of  wife  and  children,  of 
sweetheart  and  sisters,  the  bringing  out  of  presents,  the 
excited  talk  late  into  the  night  of  things  nearest  to  them, 
how  they  had  fared,  how  he  had  fared,  and  the  quiet 
peace  of  the  morrow  when  for  the  first  time  in  months  or 
years  he  feels  that  he  can  indeed  rest. 

Then  the  other  picture,  a  hut  in  the  chaparral  or 
among  the  pines,  by  day  shoveling  in  the  water,  hammer- 
ing on  the  flume,  prying  among  the  boulders,  digging  in 
the  shaft  or  tunnel ;  at  night  frying  meat  and  baking  bread 
in  the  ashes,  a  turn  among  the  roysterers  of  the  saloons, 
drinks  of  fiery  whiskey  and  chats  with  the  harlots  of  the 
hall;  on  Sunday  washing  of  clothes,  more  whiskey  and 
perchance  some  shooting,  all  the  while  the  heart  sore 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  125 

within  by  reason  of  departed  manhood  and  moral  degra- 
dation. 

What  a  contrast  in  this  reverie  of  returns!  See  him 
now  as  rising  from  his  seat  he  draws  from  his  pocket  a 
little  leather  bag  of  gold-dust,  and  approaching  the  table 
he  lays  it  on  a  card.  "By  God  I'll  chance  it;  home  or 
the  mines!" 

Before  starting  from  home  or  soon  after  his  arrival  in 
California,  the  gold-smitten  adventurer  has  named  the 
time  of  his  return,  and  that  time  is  daily  looked  forward 
to  with  a  longing  such  as  few  others  have  ever  experienced. 
And  safely  bestowed  at  home  again,  after  a  brief  period  of 
enjoyment,  he  longs  for  California  once  more.  California 
with  all  her  sins  upon  her,  with  all  the  trials  and  temptations, 
the  successes  and  failures,  to  him  who  has  once  tasted  of  her 
fascinations,  who  has  breathed  the  electrical  air  and  felt 
the  stimulating  sun  strike  into  his  veins,  there  is  no  other 
place  in  which  to  live  or  die. 

Many  a  good  man  has  fought  out  the  battle  of  life  in 
the  Sierra  foothills,  or  on  the  dunes  of  San  Francisco,  and 
gone  his  way  leaving  no  mark  other  than  the  impress  of 
soul  upon  human  progress.  Yet  that  should  suffice;  if 
we  search  intelligently  and  follow  faithfully  our  own 
interests,  we  may  be  very  sure  that  we  are  at  the  same 
time  living  to  the  interests  of  our  fellow  men. 

The  typical  returning  Calif ornian  of  the  early  days, 
fresh  from  his  baptism  in  a  new  economic  environment, 
was  a  fine  specimen  of  American  manhood,  as  elsewhere  I 
have  intimated.  Tall,  strong,  and  self-contained,  some- 
times coarse  but  always  courteous  and  with  a  chivalrous 
consideration  for  women  and  children,  he  formed  a  strik- 
ing contrast  to  the  awkward  and  somewhat  verdant  youth 
that  had  left  his  home  some  years  ago. 

Montgomery  street  was  the  Wall  street  of  the  city  then, 
and  remained  so  for  twenty  years  thereafter.  The  water 
of  the  Cove  at  first  came  up  to  it  at  Jackson  street,  extend- 


126  RETROSPECTION 

ing  in  a  lagoon  up  Jackson  street  half  way  to  Kearny. 
California  street,  supported  by  one  house  only,  that  of 
Alsop  and  company,  marked  the  southern  business  limit, 
and  Front  street  the  eastern. 

Steamer  days  had  become  an  institution;  twice  or  three 
times  a  month  there  was  an  arrival  and  a  departure,  oftener 
than  that  when  the  Nicaragua  line  was  in  operation.  Busi- 
ness transactions  dated  from  one  steamer  day  to  another, 
the  day  before  departure  being  collection  day.  As  for 
the  day  of  arrival,  as  the  time  approached,  wistful  eyes 
were  cast  upon  the  long-armed  post  surmounting  Tele- 
graph hill  for  the  expected  signal,  for  besides  business  and 
merchandise,  were  there  not  blessed  letters  from  home,  and 
friends  perhaps  expected? 

Telegraph  hill  became  historic.  The  worst  element  of 
the  town  camped  at  its  foot,  and  the  dead  were  buried  on 
its  sides.  Outgoing  sailing-vessels  sliced  it  off  for  ballast 
at  the  time  when  ships  came  to  California  laden  with  mer- 
chandise and  went  empty  away.  Later  when  the  age  of 
grain  arrived  vessels  came  empty  and  went  away  loaded. 
All  of  which  was  emblematic  of  the  doing  and  undoing  of 
things  in  California. 

Of  late  sentimentalists  would  cleanse  the  inhabitants, 
teach  the  use  of  the  fork  instead  of  the  fingers,  and  restore 
and  beautify  the  hill.  Why?  On  the  northern  side  at 
the  base,  when  the  signaling  began,  there  were  pig-sties; 
in  the  proposed  restoration,  with  the  lumbering  signal 
machine  on  top,  should  we  restore  the  graves  of  the  dead 
Italians,  and  the  pig-sties,  and  the  ghastly  scar  left  by 
the  ballast-shippers,  while  the  remainder  of  this  very  dirty 
dirt  could  be  advantageously  used  in  filling  back  of  much 
needed  bulkheads  for  commercial  purposes,  and  while  so 
near  at  hand  is  Russian  hill,  which  with  winding  roads 
and  villa  sites  on  ,its  bluff  sides  facing  the  Golden  Gate 
and  bay  could  be  beautified  to  one's  heart's  content,  and 
made  one  of  the  most  picturesque  places  in  the  world? 

From  the  plaza,  or  Portsmouth  square,  a  path  led  along 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  127 

where  is  now  Kearny  street,  round  the  Sutter  street  hill 
into  St.  Ann  valley,  where  a  covering  of  scraggy  oaks  sup- 
plied fire-wood  to  be  delivered  at  forty  dollars  a  cord, 
and  so  on  to  the  Mission  through  Hayes  valley  where  grew 
an  abundance  of  wild  strawberries. 

The  trail  from  the  Presidio  entered  Kearny  street  north 
of  the  plaza,  deflecting  west  at  Pine. 

Mr.  Neall,  a  prominent  citizen  of  the  time  and  place, 
informs  me  that  he  and  other  business  men  of  San  Fran- 
cisco in  the  spring  of  1849  would  often  on  a  quiet  Sunday 
tie  their  tent  strings  and  go  gunning  over  the  dunes  leav- 
ing twenty-five  or  fifty  thousand  dollars  in  gold-dust  locked 
in  a  little  iron  box  that  a  blow  of  the  hammer  would  break 
in  pieces. 

Words  dropped  by  an  experienced  traveller  and  close 
observer  like  Bayard  Taylor,  who  was  in  California  in 
1849,  bring  into  high  relief  the  salient  features  in  a  pic- 
ture of  the  times. 

At  San  Diego  "before  the  hide-houses  at  the  landing- 
place"  his  steamer,  upward  bound  from  the  Isthmus,  came 
to  anchor.  It  was  the  same  steamer,  the  Panama,  upon 
which  the  writer  of  this  Retrospection  made  his  first  voyage 
on  the  Pacific  three  years  later,  his  vessel  anchoring  in  the 
same  place  for  fire-wood,  driven  thither  by  a  storm  outside 
which  had  exhausted  her  coal;  the  same  landing-place 
where  the  boy  Dana,  fourteen  years  before  Taylor,  had 
scooted  his  dried  cattle-hides  down  the  bluff.  It  was  on 
the  south  side  of  Point  Loma,  where  was  afterward  Rose- 
ville. 

"The  old  hide-houses,"  Taylor  goes  on  to  say,  "are 
built  at  the  foot  of  the  hills  just  inside  the  bay,  and  a  fine 
road  along  the  shore  leads  to  the  town  of  San  Diego,  which 
is  situated  on  a  plain  three  miles  distant  and  barely  visible 
from  the  anchorage.  Above  the  houses  on  a  little  eminence 
several  tents  were  planted,  and  a  short  distance  further 
were  several  recent  graves  surrounded  by  paling.  A  num- 


128  RETROSPECTION 

her  of  people  were  clustered  on  the  beach,  and  boats  laden 
with  passengers  and  freight  instantly  put  off  to  us.  In  a 
few  minutes  after  our  gun  was  fired  we  could  see  horse- 
men coming  down  from  San  Diego  at  full  gallop,  one  of 
whom  carried  behind  him  a  lady  in  graceful  riding  cos- 
tume. In  the  first  boat  were  Colonel  Weller,  U.  S.  Boun- 
dary Commissioner,  and  Major  Hill,  of  the  army.  Then 
followed  a  number  of  men,  lank  and  brown  '  as  is  the  ribbed 
sea-sand,' — men  with  long  hair  and  beards,  and  faces  from 
which  the  rigid  expression  of  suffering  was  scarcely  re- 
laxed. They  were  the  first  of  the  overland  emigrants  by 
the  Gila  route,  who  had  reached  San  Diego  a  few  days  be- 
fore. Their  clothes  were  in  tatters,  their  boots,  in  many 
cases,  replaced  by  moccasins,  and,  except  their  rifles  and 
some  small  packages  rolled  in  deerskin,  they  had  noth- 
ing left  of  the  abundant  stores  with  which  they  left 
home. ' ' 

Passing  on  to  Monterey,  "a  handsome  fort,  on  an  emi- 
nence near  the  sea,  returned  our  salute.  Four  vessels, 
shattered,  weather-beaten,  and  apparently  deserted,  lay  at 
anchor  not  far  from  shore.  The  town  is  larger  than  I  ex- 
pected to  find  it,  and  from  the  water  has  the  air  of  a  large 
New  England  village,  barring  the  adobe  houses." 

Dropping  anchor  in  San  Francisco  bay  opposite  the 
main  landing  outside  of  a  forest  of  masts  as  the  gun  of  the 
Panama  announces  her  arrival,  a  glimpse  of  the  town  is 
caught.  "Around  the  curving  shore  of  the  Bay  and  upon 
the  sides  of  three  hills  which  rise  steeply  from  the  water, 
the  middle  one  receding  so  as  to  form  a  bold  amphitheatre, 
the  town  is  planted  and  seems  scarcely  yet  to  have  taken 
root,  for  tents,  canvas,  plank,  mud,  and  adobe  houses  are 
mingled  together  with  the  least  apparent  attempt  at  order 
and  durability.  The  boat  put  us  ashore  at  the  northern 
point  of  the  anchorage,  at  the  foot  of  a  steep  bank,  from 
which  a  high  pier  had  been  built  into  the  bay.  A  large 
vessel  lay  at  the  end  discharging  her  cargo.  "We  scrambled 
up  through  piles  of  luggage.  A  furious  wind  was  blowing 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  129 

down  through  a  gap  in  the  hills  filling  the  streets  with 
clouds  of  dust.  Great  quantities  of  goods  were  piled  up  in 
the  open  air  for  want  of  a  place  to  store  them.  Many  of 
the  passengers  began  speculation  at  the  moment  of  land- 
ing. The  most  ingenious  and  successful  operation  was 
made  by  a  gentleman  of  New  York,  who  took  out  fifteen 
hundred  copies  of  The  Tribune  and  other  papers,  which  he 
disposed  of  in  two  hours  at  one  dollar  a-piece !  Hearing  of 
this  I  bethought  me  of  about  a  dozen  papers  which  I  had 
used  to  fill  up  crevices  in  packing  my  valise.  There  was  a 
newspaper  merchant  at  the  corner  of  the  City  hotel,  and 
to  him  I  proposed  the  sale  of  them,  asking  him  to  name  a 
price.  "I  shall  want  to  make  a  good  profit  on  the  retail 
price,"  said  he,  "and  can't  give  more  than  ten  dollars  for 
the  lot."  I  was  satisfied  with  the  wholesale  price,  which 
was  a  gain  of  just  four  thousand  per  cent!  I  set  out  for 
a  walk  before  dark  and  climbed  a  hill  back  of  the  town, 
passing  a  number  of  tents  pitched  in  the  hollows.  The 
scattered  houses  spread  out  below  me,  and  the  crowded 
shipping  in  the  harbor,  backed  by  a  lofty  line  of  moun- 
tains made  an  imposing  picture.  The  restless,  feverish 
tide  of  life  in  that  little  spot,  and  the  thought  that  what 
I  then  saw  and  was  yet  to  see  will  hereafter  fill  one  of  the 
most  marvelous  pages  of  all  history  rendered  it  singularly 
impressive.  Every  new-comer  in  San  Francisco  is  over- 
taken with  a  sense  of  complete  bewilderment.  A  gentle- 
man who  arrived  in  April  told  me  he  then  found  but  thirty 
or  forty  houses ;  the  population  was  then  so  scant  that  not 
more  than  twenty-five  persons  would  be  seen  in  the  streets 
at  any  one  time.  Now,  there  were  probably  five  hundred 
houses,  tents  and  sheds,  with  a  population  fixed  and  float- 
ing of  six  thousand. 

"Pueblo  San  Jose,  situated  about  five  miles. from  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  bay  of  San  Francisco  in  the 
mouth  of  the  beautiful  valley  of  San  Jose,  is  one  of  the 
most  flourishing  inland  towns  in  California.  On  my  first 
visit  it  was  mainly  a  collection  of  adobe  houses,  with  tents 


130  RETROSPECTION 

and  a  few  clapboard  dwellings,  of  the  season's  growth, 
scattered  over  a  square  half-mile. 

"A  view  of  Stockton  was  something  to  be  remembered. 
There,  in  the  heart  of  California,  where  the  last  winter 
stood  a  solitary  rancho  in  the  midst  of  tule  marshes,  I 
found  a  canvas  town  of  a  thousand  inhabitants,  and  a  port 
with  twenty-five  vessels  at  anchor.  The  mingled  noises  of 
labor  around,  the  click  of  hammers  and  the  grating  of 
saws,  the  shouts  of  mule  drivers,  the  jingling  of  spurs, 
the  jar  and  jostle  of  wares  in  the  tents,  almost  cheated  me 
into  the  belief  that  it  was  some  old  commercial  mart  fa- 
miliar with  such  sounds  for  years  past.  Four  months 
only  had  sufficed  to  make  the  place  what  it  was ;  and  in  that 
time  a  wholesale  firm  established  there,  one  out  of  a  dozen, 
had  done  business  to  the  amount  of  $100,000.  In  the  early 
morning  the  elk  might  be  seen  in  bands  of  forty  or  fifty, 
grazing  on  the  edge  of  the  marshes,  where  they  were  some- 
times lassoed  by  the  native  vaqueros  and  taken  into  Stock- 
ton." 

At  Sacramento  "The  forest  of  masts  along  the  embar- 
cadero  more  than  rivalled  the  splendid  growth  of  the  soil. 
Boughs  and  spars  were  mingled  together  in  striking  con- 
trast; the  cables  were  fastened  to  the  trunks  and  sinewy 
roots  of  the  trees;  sign-boards  and  figure-heads  were  set 
up  on  shore,  facing  the  levee,  and  galleys  and  deck-cabins 
were  turned  out  to  grass,  leased  as  shops,  or  occupied  as 
dwellings.  The  aspect  of  the  place  on  landing  vras  de- 
cidedly more  novel  and  picturesque  than  that  of  any  other 
town  in  the  country.  The  original  forest-trees,  standing 
in  all  parts  of  the  town,  give  it  a  very  picturesque  appear- 
ance. Many  of  the  streets  are  lined  with  oaks  and  syca- 
mores six  feet  in  diameter  and  spreading  ample  boughs 
on  every  side.  The  city  was  peopled  principally  by  New- 
Yorkers,  Jerseymen,  and  people  from  the  western  states. 
The  road  to  Sutler's  fort,  the  main  streets  and  the  levee 
fronting  on  the  embarcadero,  were  constantly  thronged 
with  the  teams  of  emigrants  coming  in  from  the  moun- 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  131 

• 

tains.  Such  worn,  weather-beaten  individuals  I  never  be- 
fore imagined.  Their  tents  were  pitched  by  hundreds 
in  the  thickets  around  the  town,  where  they  rested  a  few 
days  before  starting  to  winter  in  the  mines  or  elsewhere. 
At  times  the  levee  was  filled  throughout  its  whole  length 
by  their  teams,  three  or  four  yoke  of  oxen  to  every  wagon. 
The  amount  of  gambling  in  Sacramento  city  was  very 
great,  and  the  enticement  of  music  was  employed  even  to 
a  greater  extent  than  in  San  Francisco.  The  horse-market 
was  one  of  the  principal  sights  in  the  place,  and  as  pic- 
turesque a  thing  as  could  be  seen  anywhere.  The  trees 
were  here  thicker  and  of  larger  growth  than  in  other  parts 
of  the  city;  the  market-ground  in  the  middle  of  the  street 
was  shaded  by  an  immense  evergreen  oak,  and  surrounded 
by  tents  of  blue  and  white  canvas.  One  side  was  flanked 
by  a  livery-stable — an  open  frame  of  poles,  roofed  with 
dry  tule,  in  which  stood  a  few  shivering  mules  and  raw- 
boned  horses,  while  the  stacks  of  hay  and  wheat  straw  on 
the  open  lots  in  the  vicinity  offered  feed  to  the  buyers  of 
animals  at  the  rate  of  $3  daily  for  each  head.  When  the 
market  was  in  full  blast  the  scene  it  presented  was  gro- 
tesque enough.  There  were  no  regulations  other  than  the 
fancy  of  those  who  had  animals  to  sell;  every  man  was  his 
own  auctioneer  and  showed  off  the  points  of  his  horses  or 
mules.  The  ground  was  usually  occupied  by  several  per- 
sons at  once." 

Witnessing  the  San  Francisco  December  fire  from  the  bay 
he  says,  "I  went  on  deck  in  the  misty  daybreak  to  take  a 
parting  look  at  the  town  and  its  amphitheatric  hills.  As 
I  turned  my  face  shoreward  a  little  spark  appeared  through 
the  fog.  Suddenly  it  shot  up  into  a  spiry  flame,  and  at 
the  same  instant  I  heard  the  sound  of  gongs,  bells,  and 
trumpets,  and  the  shouting  of  human  voices.  The  calam- 
ity, predicted  and  dreaded  so  long  in  advance  that  men 
ceased  to  think  of  it,  had  come  at  last.  San  Francisco  was 
on  fire!  The  blaze  increased  with  fearful  rapidity.  In 
fifteen  minutes  it  had  risen  into  a  broad,  flickering  column, 


132  RETROSPECTION 

making  all  the  shore  the  misty  air  and  the  water  ruddy 
as  with  another  sunrise.  The  sides  of  new  frame  houses 
scattered  through  the  town,  tents  high  up  on  the  hills, 
and  the  hulls  and  listless  sails  of  vessels  in  the  bay  gleamed 
and  sparkled  in  the  thick  atmosphere.  Meanwhile  the 
roar  and  tumult  swelled,  and  above  the  clang  of  gongs  and 
the  cries  of  the  populace  I  could  hear  the  crackling  of 
blazing  timbers  and  the  smothered  sound  of  falling  roofs. 
I  climbed  into  the  rigging  and  watched  the  progress  of  the 
conflagration.  As  the  flames  leaped  upon  a  new  dwelling 
there  was  a  sudden  whirl  of  their  waving  volumes,  an  em- 
bracing of  the  frail  walls  in  their  relentless  clasp,  and  a 
second  afterwards  from  roof  and  rafter  and  foundation- 
beam  shot  upward  a  jet  of  fire,  steady  and  intense  at  first,  but 
surging  off  into  spiral  folds  and  streamers  as  the  timbers 
parted  and  fell.  For  more  than  an  hour,  while  we  were 
tacking  in  the  channel  between  Yerba  Buena  island  and  the 
anchorage,  there  was  no  apparent  check  to  the  flames.  Be- 
fore passing  Fort  Montgomery,  however,  we  heard  several 
explosions  in  quick  succession,  and  conjectured  that  vigor- 
ous measures  had  been  taken  to  prevent  further  destruc- 
tion. When  at  last  with  a  fair  breeze  and  bright  sky  we 
were  dashing  past  the  rock  of  Alcatraz,  the  red  column 
had  sunk  away  to  a  smouldering  blaze,  and  nothing  but  a 
heavy  canopy  of  smoke  remained  to  tell  the  extent  of  the 
conflagration. ' ' 

It  was  a  community  of  young  men;  women,  children 
and  old  men  together  being  less  than  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
population.  Of  females  in  the  cities  the  proportion  was 
less  than  eight  per  cent,  and  in  the  mines  less  than  two  per 
cent. 

Not  every  nation  would  have  been  as  free  with  its  five 
hundred  miles  of  rich  placer  mines,  as  to  invite  all  the 
world  to  come  and  help  themselves.  True  it  had  come 
easy  and  might  go  without  conditions.  To  conquer  terms 
from  Mexico  had  not  been  a  difficult  task,  and  to  pay  a 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  133 

pour-boire  of  fifteen  millions  for  what  was  worth  fifteen 
thousand  millions,  and  all  so  soon  following  the  Louisiana 
bargain, — buying  it  or  stealing  it  at  that  rate  per  thousand 
leagues  was  a  get-rich-quick  achievement  concerning  which 
we  could  well  afford  to  be  liberal. 

What  a  possible  Utopia  was  here  if  only  man  had  been 
free  from  his  own  inventions!  Managed  as  a  thrifty  New 
Englander  manages  his  farm  here  was  sufficient  to  feed 
and  clothe  the  world  forever,  or  at  least  until  standing 
room  should  become  scarce.  Here  was  opportunity  in  its 
broadest  conception.  A  practical  Eden  had  humanity 
been  ready  for  it,  a  substantial  Eden  with  reasonable 
possibilities  superior  indeed  to  the  fantastical  garden  and 
its  occupants  on  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates.  But  men  are 
little  more  capable  of  exercising  wisdom  in  their  affairs 
now  than  in  the  days  of  Adam  and  Lot. 

There  -  was  no  good  reason  why  all  foreigners  should 
not  have  been  taxed  who  came  to  gather  gold,  no  good 
reason  why  an  export  duty  should  not  have  been  placed 
on  gold,  or  a  fifth  taken  by  the  government  as  in  the  flush 
times  of  Spanish  America,  no  good  reason  why  after  killing 
the  Indians  and  taking  their  lands  we  should  invite  the 
scum  of  the  world  to  come  and  occupy  them,  no  reason  why 
we  should  then  turn  over  the  government  to  these  ignorant 
aliens,  who  knew  not  our  pilgrim  fathers  nor  yet  the  fourth 
of  July  except  as  a  day  to  get  drunk  in.  True,  we  could 
get  rick  quicker  by  filling  up  the  waste  places  of  the  Re- 
public with  any  kind  of  rubbish,  and  we  did  get  rich  quick, 
six  of  us  at  least,  who  represent  the  six  great  interests,  oil, 
steel,  telephones,  railroads,  banks,  and  robbery  pure  and 
simple.  But  how  about  the  ninety  and  nine  millions  who 
get  none  of  these  good  things? 

England  kept  order  in  her  Cariboo  mines  and  made  the 
interlopers  pay  for  it.  Murderers  were  caught  and 
promptly  hanged,  and  no  harangue  of  the  well-paid  lawyer 
or  mumbled  excuse  from  be-wigged  and  be-gowned  high- 
priests  of  law  might  ever  avail  to  set  him  free.  In  the 


134  RETROSPECTION 

Sierra  foothills  also  there  was  an  absence  of  technicalities, 
justice  was  free  and  hanging  easy. 

Next  to  the  Anglo-Americans  who  though  out-num- 
bered were  still  dominant,  were  the  Spanish-Americans; 
then  the  self-complacent  Briton,  the  reflective  German,  the 
versatile  Latin.  From  Africa,  besides  the  orthodox  man- 
eater  was  the  swarthy  Moor  and  sombre  Abyssinian.  From 
Asia,  Australia,  and  the  South  sea  isles,  the  turbaned  In- 
dian, the  Mongol,  the  Malay,  the  Chinaman,  the  man  of 
Nippon,  the  Kanaka,  and  the  rest.  As  compared  with 
the  class  the  Teuton  peoples  here  presented,  the  restless 
Celt  and  the  Latin  representatives  appeared  to  less  ad- 
vantage for  building  a  high-class  commonwealth,  while 
least  desirable  of  all  the  Europeans  was  the  slothful 
Slav. 

In  1853  business  opened  with  a  rush,  only  to  collapse 
the  following  year  from  over-trading  and  over-building. 
Placer  mining  had  also  reached  its  culminating  point,  and 
those  driven  in  consequence  to  agriculture  and  stock-rais- 
ing had  as  yet  only  begun.  Mason,  Persifer  Smith,  and 
Riley  each  in  turn  had  been  appointed  governor,  but  they 
were  only  military  men  and  did  little  governing.  Over 
the  mind  of  General  Persifer  Smith  came  a  dim  conscious- 
ness of  the  fitness  of  things  when  he  wrote  the  secretary  of 
war,  "I  am  partly  inclined  to  think  it  would  be  right  for 
me  to  prevent  foreigners  from  taking  the  gold  unless  they 
intend  to  become  citizens."  And  again,  "I  shall  consider 
every  one  not  a  citizen  of  the  United  States  who  enters  on 
public  land  and  digs  for  gold  as  a  trespasser."  But  the 
preemption  and  other  loose  or  liberal  ways  of  administra- 
tion had  become  so  interwoven  in  the  politics  of  the  nation 
as  to  prevent  decisive  action  under  these  new  conditions, 
and  the  matter  was  allowed  to  lapse. 

"We  must  not  credit  ourselves  with  pure  benevolence 
and  good  will  to  man  as  the  whole  reason  for  giving  away 
our  gold.  The  yellow  metal  attracted  people,  many  of 
whom  remained  from  choice  while  others  could  not  get 


AN  ARTLESS  ADVENTURER  135 

away,  and  so  became  settlers;  not  to  mention  further  the 
thousands  of  millions  in  agricultural  products  taken  from 
the  soil  coming  from  the  Louisiana  purchase  and  the  Cali- 
fornia country;  and  not  to  mention,  finally,  the  coal  and 
iron,  the  silver  and  copper,  or  the  gold  previously  taken. 
Within  the  last  ten  years  alone  the  gold  product  of  the 
United  States  was  some  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars, 
most  of  it  taken  from  regions  west  of  the  Rocky  mountains. 
So  around  the  entire  seaboard  of  the  Pacific  lies  uncovered 
natural  wealth  such  as  never  yet  has  been  revealed  to  the 
avaricious  eyes  of  man. 

I  have  said  that  no  young  man  ever  left  home  for  the 
California  mines  and  reached  San  Francisco  the  same  per- 
son. If  therefore  the  transformation  on  the  voyage  was 
so  great,  how  much  greater  was  that  which  followed. 

Latent  in  every  individual  are  traits  and  characteristics 
the  existence  of  which  are  unknown  to  the  possessor  until 
brought  to  light  by  circumstances. 

The  new  and  varied  experiences  of  the  outward  journey 
could  not  account  altogether  for  the  sudden  transforma- 
tion attending  the  arrival.  In  the  new  environment  new 
issues  arose  which  must  be  determined  on  the  spot,  and  the 
trend  of  such  determination  marked  the  man,  marked  his 
inherited  qualities,  and  the  effect  on  them  of  the  new  con- 
ditions. Actual  or  fancied  necessity  might  drive  the  mis- 
sionary to  dealing  monte,  or  the  college  professor  to  cook- 
ing in  a  restaurant,  while  the  old  identity  of  thousands  of 
educated  and  refined  men  was  quickly  lost  in  the  rusty 
habiliments  of  the  unkempt  miner. 

Old  habits,  old  beliefs,  old  principles  fell  from  the 
hitherto  pattern  of  propriety  like  a  garment  on  touching 
the  wharf  at  San  Francisco,  their  naked  souls  to  be  garbed 
anew  in  the  unaccustomed  activities  of  the  town  or  the 
coarse  uniform  of  the  Foothills. 

Not  only  were  these  men  thus  so  strangely  and  unex- 
pectedly thrown  together  in  a  new  atmosphere  of  human 


136  RETROSPECTION 

intercourse  destined  to  work  out  for  themselves  a  new 
system  of  salvation,  but  new  systems  of  government  of 
business,  of  society,  and  morals,  with  the  crude  amenities 
of  a  new  manhood. 

The  change  was  sudden  and  decisive.  The  sometime 
lazy  person  was  seized  with  energy,  the  prudent  became 
reckless  as  he  laid  his  money  on  the  gambling  table,  or  en- 
gaged in  wild  commercial  speculation.  Faiths  and  doc- 
trines, the  result  of  a  lifetime  of  pious  instruction  and 
training,  were  often  laid  aside  to  be  taken  up  at  some  future 
time  in  a  more  congenial  atmosphere.  The  complex  con- 
dition of  life  in  the  mines  turned  out  many  a  strange 
creature,  a  wonder  most  of  all  to  himself. 

All  sense  of  moral  or  social  obligation  was  too  often 
atrophied  by  selfish  interests,  and  yet  there  pervaded  the 
entire  community  a  wonderful  kindness  of  heart  and  good- 
fellowship,  with  instances  of  self-denial  and  devotion  ris- 
ing into  the  heroic. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  PASSING  OP   THE  FRONTIERS 

THE  American  frontier,  which  for  two  and  a  half 
centuries  entered  so  largely  into  the  destinies  of  the 
nation,  began  its  course  at  tidewater  on  the  shore  of  the 
Atlantic.  At  first  a  thin  line  along  the  seaboard  which 
marked  the  limit  of  European  occupation,  it  slowly  fell 
back  ten  miles,  a  hundred  miles,  a  thousand  miles,  until 
two  hundred  years  and  more  had  passed  away,  when  at 
the  call  of  gold  representatives  from  all  the  world  congre- 
gated on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  only  to  see  another 
frontier  arise  before  them,  destined  to  move  slowly  east- 
ward to  a  meeting  at  the  continental  divide,  both  frontiers 
there  to  vanish  as  phantoms  of  departed  peoples. 

When  the  Puritans  from  Holland  landed  at  Plymouth 
they  landed  on  the  frontier,  the  ever-moving  line  which 
marked  the  separation  of  civilization  from  savagism.  Over 
this  line  were  for  the  newcomers  romance  heightened  by 
peril,  the  gathering  of  wealth  with  adventure;  on  the 
hither  side  was  the  work  accomplished,  wild  lands  subdued 
and  farms  and  settlements  secured. 

There  at  the  initial  line  of  these  frontiers  the  Puritans 
on  landing  set  up  for  themselves  for  defense  only  a  platform 
on  a  hill  with  mounted  guns,  but  sufficiently  significant  of 
coming  conquest  and  subjugation.  Pestilence  among  the 
natives  won  for  the  settlers  a  quiet  winter,  thus  giving  time 
for  some  slight  preparation  for  the  long  forthcoming 
struggle  for-  the  supremacy. 

For  a  time  the  frontier  hovered  about  the  Appalachian 
range,  then  swept  westward  over  the  valley  of  the  Ohio, 
resting  again  at  the  Mississippi. 

137 


138  RETROSPECTION 

In  preparing  the  primitive  lands  for  the  use  of  civili- 
zation, before  the  forests  are  leveled  or  the  prairies  plowed, 
the  country  must  be  cleared  to  some  extent  of  its  former 
occupants,  the  aboriginal  owners  of  the  domain. 

Conscience  the  pilgrims  had  brought  with  them  in 
liberal  supply,  and  of  an  accommodating  sort,  applicable 
alike  for  expelling  unorthodox  believers  or  slaying  savages. 
It  was  not  difficult  for  them  to  persuade  themselves  that 
heathen  nations  have  no  rights  before  Christians,  that 
savages  have  no  rights  in  the  presence  of  civilization,  that 
is  to  say  if  Christians  and  their  civilization  happen  to  be 
the  stronger. 

They  would  not  shock  the  ears  of  a  sensitive  world  by 
proclaiming  aloud  the  rectitude  of  power,  but  they  acted 
out  the  principle,  all  the  same,  as  fully  as  ever  did  Caesar 
or  Napoleon.  Preachers  in  the  pulpit  preached  it  from 
holy  writ;  judges  wove  it  into  their  most  righteous  de- 
cisions. 

Thus  it  was,  that  while  our  pilgrims  were  not  at  heart 
more  wicked  than  Turks  nor  more  cruel  than  Spaniards, 
never  was  the  treatment  of  Turk  or  Spaniard  more  fatal 
to  a  conquered  people  than  was  our  treatment  of  the 
Indians. 

William  Penn  was  a  just  and  upright  man.  At  least 
he  thought  himself  such,  which  is  half  the  battle;  others 
thought  him  so,  which  went  far  toward  making  up  the 
other  half.  When  he  set  out  to  people  his  state,  he  did 
not  go  to  the  ghettos  of  London  and  St.  Petersburg,  nor 
visit  the  purlieus  of  Naples  and  Vienna,  but  he  printed 
pamphlets  and  gave  them  to  his  Quaker  friends  in  Eng- 
land and  the  Lutherans  in  Germany. 

He  promised  that  with  free  lands  the  incomers  should 
be  allowed  free  religion,  both  of  which  they  knew  how  to 
value  and  to  use.  Thus  his  lands  became  occupied  by  the 
best  and  not  by  the  worst  element  of  Europe. 

Penn  possessed  a  conscience,  a  seventeenth  century  con- 
science. Charles  II  had  no  conscience  whether  of  time  or 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRONTIERS        139 

place.  A  seventeenth  century  conscience  demanded  pay- 
ment for  Indian  lands,  but  the  amount  need  not  be  large 
nor  the  value  excessive.  Payment  once  made,  minor  cheat- 
ings  were  in  order. 

The  attitude  of  Penn  in  his  dealings  for  his  domain 
with  the  natives  has  been  regarded  as  a  model  of  fairness. 
Doubtless  this  is  true  from  the  viewpoint  of  that  day, 
however  illogical  his  position  may  seem  to  us.  We  may 
not  speak  of  the  rights  of  savages  who  have  not  the  power 
to  maintain  them.  We  may  not  speak  too  freely  of  the 
rights  of  might  or  of  the  might  of  right. 

William  Penn,  who  earnestly  desired  to  do  right,  may 
not  question  too  closely  the  actual  ownership  of  this  land. 

It  is  not  the  province  of  history  to  cavil  at  the  decrees 
of  fate.  We  may  recognize  inexorable  necessity  when  we 
meet  it.  We  may  know  how  certain  eventualities  stand, 
how  they  have  been  and  are  likely  to  be,  though  we  are 
unable  to  weigh  or  measure  them,  or  tell  why  they  are  so. 
What  seems  to  us  wrong  in  the  abstract,  may  when  inter- 
woven in  the  scheme  of  the  universe  be  right;  we  do  not 
know;  we  do  not  like  to  think  of  so  superb  a  structure 
as  the  American  federation  standing  on  a  rotten  founda- 
tion. 

We  see  the  titles  to  all  civilized  lands  running  back  to 
their  acquisition  by  bloodshed  and  fraud;  ownerships 
changing  on  the  approach  of  superior  strength;  various 
names  being  given  to  various  sorts  of  robbery,  as  right  of 
conquest,  right  of  discovery,  the  word  right  here  not  sig- 
nifying so  much  that  which  is  just  and  proper  as  that 
which  is  strong.  What  is  right?  The  dictionary  makes 
sad  work  of  it  trying  to  tell. 

To  whom  does  this  land  belong,  to  the  king  of  England 
or  to  the  aboriginal  occupants?  Scarcely  would  William 
Penn  reply,  "To  whomsoever  possesses  the  power  to  hold 
it."  Yet  such  is  the  reply  of  history,  of  civilization.  And 
Penn  himself  acts  half  way  upon  that  theory.  As  a  mat- 
ter of  fact  he  buys  from  both  the  native  owner  and  the 


140  RETROSPECTION 

European  possessor,  but  gives  an  equivalent  in  value  to 
neither. 

Civilization  is  stronger  than  savagism  in  every  way, 
intellectually,  physically,  and  experimentally;  hence  the 
simple  savage,  this  child  of  nature,  inured  only  to  nature's 
frowns,  must  go  by  the  board.  Such  is  the  rule.  Penn 
did  not  stop  to  consider  the  logical  bearing  of  his  acts  so 
long  as  they  were  humane.  The  king  of  England  was 
willing  to  rid  himself  of  a  debt  which  he  never  expected 
to  pay  by  giving  up  what  had  cost  him  nothing  and  did  not 
belong  to  him.  But  with  the  royal  title  to  the  lands  of 
Pennsylvania  in  his  pocket,  the  Quaker  was  at  peace,  al- 
though he  knew  that  title  to  be  spurious.  The  rightful 
owners  were  in  possession,  rightful  if  strong  enough  to 
maintain  their  rights. 

Still  breathing  peace,  Penn  appeared  without  weapons 
before  the  weaponless  natives,  and  promises  were  made 
which  were  kept  on  both  sides  for  sixty  years.  Then  the 
old  Adam  appeared  in  the  congregation  of  the  Friends. 
Penn  knew  that  he  was  not  paying  the  Indians  a  fair  price 
for  their  land,  but  he  did  not  resort  to  the  gross  trickery 
of  the  time.  He  at  least  pretended  that  the  price  was  fair, 
and  the  measurement  likewise. 

It  was  the  custom  among  those  Indians,  according  to 
the  long-familiar  story,  to  define  lengths  and  breadths  of 
lands  by  the  distance  a  man  ordinarily  walked  in  a  day. 
The  length  of  Penn's  tract  was  three  days'  walk.  Penn 
himself  walked  a  day  and  a  half,  not  too  slowly,  and  stopped, 
tired  out,  leaving  the  remaining  distance  to  be  walked  at 
another  time.  After  Penn's  death  the  wisdom  of  the  ser- 
pent creeping  into  the  camp  of  the  Friends,  an  expert  was 
brought  forward  to  finish  the  walking.  He  covered  eighty- 
six  miles,  or  about  four  days'  walk,  in  the  given  day  and 
a  half,  and  died.  Thereupon  peace  took  to  itself  wings; 
the  white  and  red  brothers,  Quaker  and  savage,  returned 
to  the  ultimate  appeal,  and  bloodshed  followed. 

In  the  heart  of  Friend  William  was  no  guile.     If  he 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRONTIERS        141 

had  cheated  the  Indians  it  was  not  as  he  would  have  it. 
Perhaps  he  was  the  misused  one;  perhaps  in  exchanging 
trinkets  for  square  leagues  the  Indians  had  got  the  better 
of  him.  Glass  beads  are  valuable  and  highly  prized  by 
great  chiefs,  as  valuable  and  highly  prized  as  diamonds  by 
him  who  knows  not  the  difference.  A  beautiful  bright 
bead ;  is  it  not  worth  more  than  acres  of  land  ?  And  surely 
it  is  not  as  wicked  to  cheat  the  Indians  over-walking  as  by 
under-paying.  But  Friend  William's  friends,  those  who 
succeeded  him  in  his  noble  efforts  to  establish  a  common- 
wealth on  the  broad  principles  of  truth,  honor,  and  in- 
tegrity, of  peace  and  good  will  to  men,  they  knew  they 
were  cheating,  and  they  were  made  to  suffer  for  it. 

But  the  ways  of  Penn  himself  were  ways  of  pleasant- 
ness, and  his  paths  were  of  peace,  to  such  a  degree  at  all 
events  as  should  enable  him  to  secure  the  most  and  best 
land  for  the  least  money,  and  establish  a  permanent  com- 
monwealth on  the  broad  principles  of  liberty  and  humanity, 
such  as  to  emphasize  an  achievement  without  a  parallel 
in  the  history  of  the  race. 

Lands  in  limitless  regions  which  had  cost  them  nothing 
were  cheap  enough  favors  even  for  European  monarchs 
to  bestow  liberally  upon  their  subjects.  Under  whatsoever 
name  sovereignty  was  claimed,  whether  by  right  of  dis- 
covery as  it  was  called,  or  by  right  of  conquest,  or  by  pur- 
chase from  some  power  which  had  fairly  or  fraudulently 
acquired  it  made  no  difference.  Possession  was  the  point, 
and  the  power  to  hold  possession.  In  any  event,  to  the  last 
purchaser  the  continent  came  cheap  enough,  even  though 
the  seller  could  give  but  a  poor  title. 

After  all  has  been  said  it  is  plain  that  the  acquisition 
of  title,  the  claims  to  ownership  of  lands  aboriginal  or 
ancient  must  not  be  tested  too  closely  by  any  code  of  ethics, 
other  than  the  ethic*,  of  superior  strength,  if  we  would 
not  have  brought  home  to  us  the  fact  that  every  foot  of 
this  earth  has  been  many  times  stolen  from  its  possessors. 


142  RETROSPECTION 

The  irony  of  it  all  comes  upon  us  when  we  consider 
how  quickly  following  the  teachings  of  our  good  Puritan 
parents  came  the  national  promulgation  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  rights  of  all  men  to  life,  liberty,  property,  and  the 
rest.  Before  the  white  man  came  the  red  man  was  in 
possession,  whereupon  the  white  man's  pursuit  of  happi- 
ness was  in  clearing  the  land  of  the  red  man,  and  the  red 
man's  pursuit  of  happiness  was  in  killing  the  white  man. 
Europeans  did  not  take  the  trouble  to  bring  forward  that 
stale  absurdity,  the  right  of  conquest;  of  course  lands, 
especially  savage  lands,  belonged  to  any  one  strong  enough 
to  captiire  and  hold  them. 

Then  came  a  new  pursuit  of  happiness,  voiced  by  de- 
lectable debaters  at  Washington,  more  especially  concern- 
ing the  church  of  England  people  in  the  lands  of  Mary, 
and  Caroline,  and  George,  and  Elizabeth,  the  happy  pur- 
suit of  holding  black  Africans  in  slavery,  and  fighting  over 
the  consequences  one  of  the  saddest  and  bloodiest  civil 
wars  in  history. 

As  regards  the  relative  cruelty  of  nations  or  peoples  in 
their  treatment  of  the  Indians  there  was  less  difference 
than  is  generally  admitted.  It  was  more  a  matter  of 
human  interests  than  of  human  kindness.  The  intentions 
of  the  Spanish  government  and  of  the  American  govern- 
ment were  alike  kind  and  just.  Spaniards  killed  the 
Indians  when  they  would  not  submit,  especially  when  they 
would  not  accept  the  Spaniard's  religion. 

As  I  have  said,  in  the  eyes  of  Christianity  heathenism 
had  no  rights;  in  the  eyes  of  civilization  savagism  had  no 
rights.  Wild  lands  when  wanted  by  civilization  had  only 
to  be  taken,  and  wild  men  like  wild  beasts  must  give  way 
before  the  stronger  arm.  They  had  souls,  yes,  convoked 
wisdom  had  so  decided,  but  the  swarthy  natives  of  America 
were  not  human  as  the  white  Europeans  were  human.  If 
surely  they  had  souls  they  were  heathen  souls,  unregener- 
ate,  unredeemed. 


THE  PASSING  OF   THE   FRONTIERS        143 

The  people  of  the  United  States  were  more  pronounced 
in  their  treatment  of  the  natives  than  the  Spaniards  at  the 
south  or  the  Scotchmen  in  the  north,  not  because  the  Puri- 
tans of  New  England  and  the  planters  of  Virginia  and 
their  successors  were  by  nature  more  inhuman,  but  be- 
cause the  Indians  were  not  wanted.  Their  presence  was 
a  menace  and  a  nuisance. 

The  Americans  from  first  to  last  would  have  the  coun- 
try clear  of  them,  New  Englanders  preferring  to  do  their 
own  work,  while  the  southerners  found  African  slave  labor 
more  adaptable.  The  Spaniards  in  the  meantime  found 
the  natives  profitable  for  the  purposes  of  conversion,  of 
amalgamation,  and  of  labor,  while  the  Scotch  and  English 
in  Canada  wished  to  hold  the  country  as  long  as  possible 
in  a  wild  state,  with  the  savages  to  hunt  for  them.  "The 
Hudson  Bay  company,"  its  officers  used  to  say,  "thanks 
no  one,  least  of  all  its  servants,  for  cheating  or  mistreat- 
ing the  Indians,"  while  Queen  Isabella,  on  hearing  of  the 
cruelties  of  one  of  her  captains,  exclaimed,  "How  dare  he 
so  treat  my  subjects!" 

While  the  people  of  the  states,  south  and  north,  were 
as  rapidly  as  possible  clearing  the  country  of  its  aboriginal 
population  as  they  cleared  it  of  its  wild  beasts,  by  killing 
them,  burning  their  towns,  and  driving  them  farther  back 
into  the  wilderness,  the  government,  that  abstract  irre- 
sponsible thing  at  Washington  where  its  thieving  agents 
are  concerned,  was  fathering  and  flattering  these  children 
of  nature,  herding  them  in  reservations  and  giving  them 
for  their  comfort  trinkets,  blankets,  missionaries,  surrep- 
titious whiskey,  and  the  white  man's  diseases. 

But  if  we  are  to  carry  upon  our  shoulders  this  sin  of 
our  fathers  to  the  third  or  fourth  generation,  and  for  many 
more,  we  may  take  this  for  our  consolation,  that  it  is  fate 
under  whose  inexorable  decree  we  suffer,  that  the  mere 
contact  with  civilization  is  too  often  fatal  to  the  Indian, 
that  along  the  lower  levels  of  savagism  kindness  kills  as 
surely  if  not  as  quickly  as  cruelty,  if  indeed  the  rifle  is 


144  RETROSPECTION 

not  more  merciful  than  measles,  small-pox,  syphilis,  tu- 
berculosis, and  the  rest.  The  English  in  Australia  have 
no  interest  in  clearing  the  bush  of  its  occupants,  but  it  is 
all  the  same,  contact  kills. 

Nor  were  the  white  man's  ethics  of  occupation  much 
more  logical  than  his  ethics  of  extirpation.  The  world 
was  made  for  man,  that  is  to  say  for  civilized  man.  Naked 
wild  men  and  wild  beasts  must  not  occupy  land  wanted 
by  mounted  men  in  clothes,  that  is  if  the  latter  are  strong 
enough  to  take  it.  True,  all  were  once  savage,  or  sylvan, 
but  then  the  fittest  survived,  you  know.  Well  might  the 
Indian  say  to  the  white  man,  ' '  Take  our  land  if  you  must, 
kill  us  if  you  enjoy  slaughter,  but  spare  us  your  cant, 
hypocrisy,  and  lies." 

It  is  idle  to  talk  of  the  rights  of  civilization.  Civili- 
zation has  no  rights  not  held  in  common  with  savagism. 
Let  us  rather  be  honest  with  ourselves  and  others,  and  say 
openly  to  the  natives,  ''You  have  that  which  we  want  and 
are  going  to  take;  be  quiet  and  submissive  and  we  will 
give  you  something ;  make  us  trouble  and  we  will  kill  you. ' ' 
For  this  civilization  has  itself  proclaimed,  if  not  in  words 
at  least  in  deeds. 

And  this  our  colonists  thought  at  first  to  do  respectably, 
to  remove  the  natives  and  lift  the  frontier  without  re- 
sorting to  the  usual  barbarities  of  frontier  warfare,  as 
scalping  and  torturing  their  captives;  but  after  the  lesson 
taught  by  Braddock's  defeat  they  were  obliged  to  some 
extent  to  let  their  Indian  allies  have  their  way. 

There  was  no  thought  thus  far  on  the  part  of  white 
men  of  conquering  the  Plains.  They  had  enough  nearer 
home  to  conquer,  in  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  and  on  the  hither 
side  of  the  Mississippi.  Yet  the  passing  of  the  frontiers 
was  assured  from  the  beginning.  Judging  from  the  na- 
ture and  condition  of  the  native  occupants  when  first 
seen  by  stronger  peoples  they  were  created  only  to  be 
destroyed.  At  all  events  they  were  created  and  they  were 
destroyed.  This  destruction  was  accelerated  by  the  pass- 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRONTIERS        145 

ing  of  the  frontiers;  indeed,  the  passing  of  the  frontiers 
was  their  destruction. 

It  was  a  simple  but  effectual  process.  The  colonists 
on  the  Atlantic  began  at  once  to  shove  back  the  dividing 
wall,  but  it  was  some  time  before  they  had  it  placed  well 
out  of  the  way  lined  along  the  crest  of  the  Rocky  moun- 
tains. The  gold-hunters  on  the  Pacific,  with  scarcely  any 
opposition,  quickly  found  the  country  clear  back  to  the 
Sierra  Nevada.  They  and  the  settlers  who-  came  after 
them  could  have  had  the  intervening  desert  space  at  any 
moment,  had  they  so  desired  it,  but  they  deemed  it  not 
worth  the  taking. 

The  closing  lines  of  the  unwritten  past,  the  dissolu- 
tion of  a  world  of  non-progressive  humanity  risen — who 
shall  say  how  or  when  ? — back  in  the  twilight  of  primordial 
ages,  came  softly  and  simply  as  destiny  had  decreed. 

The  dominant  race  walked  into  its  questionable  inheri- 
tance as  by  divine  right.  They  walked  about  over  it  as 
fur-hunters;  they  marched  through  it  as  emigrants;  they 
digged  for  metal  as  miners;  the  fertile  patches  they  culti- 
vated as  agriculturalists.  Finally,  becoming  tired  of  the 
long  journey  round  it  by  way  of  Nicaragua,  of  Panama,  of 
Cape  Horn,  they  laid  lines  of  railway  across  it,  factories 
and  cities  arose  and  the  achievement  was  complete. 

Thus  the  fateful  day  arrived  when  the  inevitable  must 
come  to  pass.  It  was  during  the  civil  war  and  the  recon- 
struction period  following  it  that  marked  the  disappear- 
ance of  the  American  frontiers. 

Early  came  into  American  life,  to  life  on  the  Atlantic 
seaboard,  this  western  frontier,  the  ever-shifting  barrier 
between  matter  of  fact  and  mystery.  Two  centuries  later 
appeared  to  those  on  the  Pacific  coast  their  eastern  fron- 
tier, less  now  a  mystery  than  a  matter  of  fact,  something 
to  be  met  and  overcome.  For  though  here  and  there  the 
silence  of  nature  had  been  broken,  the  miracle  of  turning 
oceans  of  sand  into  fructifying  soil  had  not  yet  been 
revealed. 


146  RETROSPECTION 

Meeting  thus  upon  the  mountain-top  the  two  frontiers 
vanished.  Throughout  the  century  each  change  in  attitude 
or  progress  of  these  frontiers,  their  uprising,  their  every 
movement,  and  their  passing  had  marked  an  era  in  the 
nation's  history.  In  front  of  each,  and  between  them,  was 
nature  undisturbed,  a  wilderness  tenanted  only  by  denizens 
of  the  wilderness.  Now  all  around  was  subjugation,  nature 
enslaved;  in  place  of  rude  wilderness,  the  calm  of  culture 
and  the  reign  of  mind,  specimens  of  superiority  sufficient 
for  themselves  at  least  to  justify  the  dominant  race  in  its 
spoliations.  Overspreading  the  republic  was  a  oneness, 
which  however  thin  the  coating,  helped  to  unite  the  diverse 
interests. 

On  the  eastern  side  transportation  became  a  vital  force. 
Wagon  roads  and  canals  were  quickly  followed  by  steam 
navigation  on  rivers  and  lakes,  and  lines  of  railways  work- 
ing ever  westward  and  stretching  finally  across  the  conti- 
nent. On  the  western  side  similar  energies  were  in  opera- 
tion, all  working  eastward;  and  in  the  meeting  of  the  two 
sides  was  sent  forth  the  last  sigh  of  savagism. 

Our  two  neighbors  at  the  north  and  in  the  south,  each 
exercised  its  own  peculiar  and  individual  influence.  The 
great  trails  of  pioneer  times,  and  later  the  trunk  lines  of 
railways  in  Canada  ran  east  and  west,  while  those  of  Mexico 
came  to  us  out  of  the  south,  as  the  Santa  Fe  trail,  and  the 
Mexican  National  and  Mexican  Central  railways.  Our 
own  roads  extend  east  and  west. 

The  significance  in  the  character  and  direction  of  the 
pathways  of  the  three  nations  was  felt  and  recognized  from 
the  first.  Our  attitude  toward  Canada  has  been  reserved, 
our  intercourse  all  along  the  line  has  been  limited,  our 
interchangeable  interests  few. 

When  Canada  was  held  by  people  of  the  Latin  race, 
it  mingled  freely  with  the  aborigines.  The  adaptiveness  of 
the  Frenchman,  his  light,  gay  spirits  captivated  them, 
throwing  the  Anglo-Saxon  into  the  shade. 

On  the  south  was  another  family  of  Latin  blood,  who 


THE  PASSING  OF  THE  FRONTIERS        147 

although  we  did  take  from  them  California  might  entertain 
some  gratitude  for  our  help  in  defeating  the  plan  of  the 
French  emperor  to  set  up  in  Mexico  an  empire  under  Maxi- 
milian. 

We  have  seen  how  railways  forced  the  barriers  and 
dispelled  the  frontiers.  They  penetrated  the  prairies  and 
punctured  the  desert.  The  seventies  saw  in  operation  the 
first  trans-continental  through  line,  the  Union  Pacific  and 
Central  Pacific  being  joined  with  imposing  ceremony  at 
Promontory,  May  10,  1869.  The  event  was  celebrated  in 
oil  by  Mr.  Hill,  the  artist,  at  the  instigation  of  Leland 
Stanford,  who  held  the  position  in  front  with  hammer 
and  golden  spike.  Stanford  took  a  great  interest  in  the 
artist's  work  during  its  progress,  coming  often  for  pose 
and  consultation  as  the  life-size  figures  developed  under 
the  brush,  it  being  understood  that  the  honored  president 
of  the  road  was  to  take  it,  paying  a  fair  price  for  it  on  its 
completion,  and  that  others  should  have  copies  of  it.  But 
in  the  meantime  the  associate  magnates  had  grown  cold 
and  jealous  over  the  matter,  feeling  that  Stanford,  who  in 
the  construction  of  the  road,  and  in  aiding  by  his  impos- 
ing presence  the  manipulation  of  contracts  and  securities, 
and  the  bridging  of  financial  irregularities  in  the  courts, 
had  served  as  little  more  than  figure-head,  now  assumed  a 
prominence  as  builder  to  which  he  was  not  entitled.  So 
in  order  to  show  indifference  to  fame,  and  smooth  the 
ruffled  plumage  of  the  others,  he  repudiated  his  obligation 
to  Mr.  Hill,  and  left  the  huge  painting,  the  work  of  several 
years,  on  the  artist's  hands. 

To  forestall  competition,  the  Central  Pacific  men  out 
of  their  lootings  built  the  Southern  Pacific,  and  with  the 
two,  the  roads  to  Oregon  and  elsewhere,  their  returns  be- 
came larger  than  ever.  The  intention  originally  was  not 
to  operate  the  first  road,  but  to  get  out  of  it  as  much  as 
possible  on  the  score  of  building,  and  then  throw  it  with 
a  huge  indebtedness  on  to  the  hands  of  the  government, 
they  themselves  standing  from  under. 


148  RETROSPECTION 

Then  followed  the  organization  of  other  roads,  the  At- 
lantic and  Pacific,  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Denver  and 
Rio  Grande,  and  others.  The  failure  of  Thomas  Scott, 
president  of  the  Pennsylvania  road,  to  build  the  Texas 
Pacific,  chartered  in  1871,  from  Texas  to  San  Diego,  rid 
the  Southern  Pacific  of  a  serious  competitor,  and  prevented 
San  Diego  from  then  becoming  the  metropolitan  city  of 
southern  California. 


CHAPTER  IX 

A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE 

courses  of  history  are  like  the  scattering  of  birds 
at  the  noise  of  the  fowler,  and  the  blending  of 
races  in  the  creation  of  new  nations  is  as  the  coming 
together  of  flocks  of  a  kind  from  different  quarters  to 
merge  into  a  homogeneous  whole. 

A  new  land  makes  a  new  people;  various  race  combi- 
nations give  sectional  variety.  A  good  food-producing 
soil  in  a  warm  or  temperate  climate  gives  the  best  ethnical 
results.  This  is  the  rule;  that  the  conditions  so  favorable 
to  development  as  those  in  Alta  California,  where  the  very 
atmosphere  is  a  vitalizing  force,  should  have  engendered 
in  all  the  ages  past  only  the  lowest  order  of  humanity 
must  be  referred  to  intervening  causes  of  which  we  can 
know  nothing. 

With  regard  to  the  development  of  peoples  already 
civilized,  united  under  new  conditions,  it  is  different.  In 
that  case  the  adaptiveness  of  the  several  parts  to  their  en- 
vironment becomes  the  chief  factor  in  progress,  for  it  is 
obviously  impossible  wholly  to  fit  old  ways  to  new  con- 
ditions. 

The  problem  was  never  more  distinctively  presented 
than  when,  at  the  call  of  gold,  a  new  people  first  came  to- 
gether in  a  new  land  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific.  And 
when  they  came  did  they  enter  in  and  possess  the  land,  or 
did  the  land  close  in  and  possess  them? 

For  there  were  few  among  those  who  came  early  to 
America  whose  minds  had  not  dwelt  to  a  greater  or  less 
extent  upon  the  new  nations  which  should  be  made  to  fit 
6  149 


150  RETROSPECTION 

the  new  lands  that  had  been  discovered;  or  should  we  say 
the  new  nation,  for  it  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that 
more  than  one  would  appear,  or  more  than  one  form  of 
government  be  devised  of  such  superior  excellence  as  to 
throw  into  the  shade  every  other  people  and  government 
of  whatsoever  time  or  place.  That  people,  of  course,  were 
our  people,  and  that  government  our  government,  and  in 
the  new  found  lands  we  should  assist  at  the  birth  as  well 
as  at  the  coming  of  age,  and  we  should  be  the  envy  of  some 
and  the  pattern  of  others,  and  gather  to  ourselves  glory 
and  reward. 

So  ran  visions  through  the  mind  of  many  who  made 
their  abode  in  Philadelphia  or  Boston,  in  New  Netherlands 
or  Virginia;  and  when  with  much  thought  and  vigorous 
action  under  the  clear  sky  and  in  the  pellucid  air  of  a  new 
environment  such  men  as  Alexander  Hamilton,  Benjamin 
Franklin,  and  George  Washington  began  to  appear,  it 
seemed  indeed  that  a  new  and  better  age  had  come  upon 
the  world. 

And  this  new  land  and  this  new  government,  God-given 
to  his  best  people,  to  a  later  chosen  Israel,  should  be  de- 
voted in  his  name  to  the  betterment  of  his  world,  of  his 
wicked  world  shall  we  say,  at  least  of  all  the  people  in  it 
of  whatsoever  country,  color,  or  creed. 

But  with  distinctions  of  course.  Nearest  us,  directly 
under  our  nose  in  fact,  and  with  none  too  fragrant  an 
odor,  were  the  aborigines  of  the  two  Americas,  having 
mind  and  heart  and  soul  like  our  own,  likewise  God-given 
with  the  new  lands,  and  to  be  properly  accounted  for  in 
the  final  reckoning. 

We  made  them  to  appear  as  bad  as  possible,  with  our 
broadest  vulgarity  giving  them  beastly  names,  as  buck, 
squaw,  papoose,  their  success  in  battle  a  massacre,  ours  a 
glorious  victory,  yet  they  were  not  worse  than  others.  We 
made  treaties  and  broke  them  at  our  pleasure,  and  placed 
over  them  as  superintendents  broken  down  politicians  who 
cheated  them  in  many  ways. 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   151 

It  is  a  pity ;  they  are  so  far  astray ;  they  surely  are  not 
worth  reclaiming.  They  will  not  work,  and  is  it  not  written 
that  such  shall  not  eat?  It  is  cheaper  to  kill  the  Indians 
and  enslave  the  Africans.  Are  not  they  also  cursed  of  the 
Almighty,  these  black  men ;  is  it  not  written  of  the  children 
of  Ham  that  they  shall  serve! 

Two  of  the  assumed  obligations,  the  red  and  the  black, 
being  thus  summarily  disposed  of  to  the  satisfaction  of  the 
Puritan  conscience,  the  remainder,  the  yellow  and  the 
white,  should  receive  their  due  consideration  at  the  proper 
time. 

These  early  comers  from  Holland  and  England  were 
different  from  the  others,  and  the  commonwealth  of  which 
they  began  the  construction  must  be  different.  They  were 
something  more  than  religious  fanatics  seeking  a  Utopia 
in  the  wilderness.  There  was  the  pride  of  life  as  well  as 
the  purity  of  faith.  It  was  only  excess  of  zeal  that  caused 
them  to  err  as  others  had  erred  in  relation  to  them.  They 
had  given  freedom  to  their  bodies  but  their  souls  they 
could  not  so  easily  emancipate. 

That  there  were  present  many  strong  men  of  tender 
conscience  and  high  sense  of  moral  obligation  did  not  pre- 
vent the  indulgence  of  iniquitous  superstitions  character- 
istic of  the  age. 

Americans  all,  but  of  different  stock,  brought  from  the 
colonial  coast  to  assimilate  in  the  hills.  Daniel  Boone's 
adventurers  in  Kentucky  were  of  one  stock;  the  strapping 
corn-fed  fellows  of  Tennessee  were  of  another  stock;  and 
when  cities  arose  yet  other  strains  were  found  there.  And 
in  the  race  development  which  followed,  this  system  in 
western  migrations  was  not  without  its  compensation. 

Kindred  in  birth  and  breeding  yet  of  different  families, 
forming  new  communities  in  new  lands;  inherited  faiths 
and  forms  of  thought  meeting  other  inherited  faiths  and 
prejudices;  new  arrivals  being  met  by  new  economic  con- 
ditions and  new  social  and  religious  ideals,  toleration  be- 


152  RETROSPECTION 

came  a  necessity,  and  the  several  members  of  these  so- 
cieties learned  in  time  to  give  and  take  the  best  and 
eliminate  the  less  desirable. 

Thus  were  brought  face  to  face  the  New  Englander  and 
the  Virginian,  the  New  York  Dutchman  and  the  Pennsyl- 
vania German,  and  the  many  mixtures  in  the  south,  every 
family  having  its  history,  which  with  early  environment 
and  characteristic  differences  might,  if  known,  explain  as 
well  the  race  antagonisms  as  the  tolerance  and  kindly  feel- 
ing attending  the  creation  of  new  communities. 

Crossing  the  Mississippi  and  still  moving  westward  yet 
other  types  appeared.  At  every  halting  place  the  problem 
had  to  be  wrought  out  anew.  Finally  these  restless  builders 
of  empire,  overleaping  plains,  mountains,  and  deserts,  met 
and  mingled,  these  many  types  with  many  other  types  on 
the  California  shores  of  the  Pacific.  All  along  the  route 
they  left  their  impress  on  the  soil,  the  impress  of  mind 
and  manners,  of  speech  and  numberless  idiosyncrasies 
brought  with  them  from  their  late  American  or  European 
homes,  they  or  their  children,  then  or  later,  destined  to 
be  again  disrupted  and  recast  perhaps  in  broader  forms 
with  fresh  infiltrations  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe. 
For  thus  America  was  made,  the  American  people,  a  dis- 
tillation from  one  alembic  of  all  the  nations. 

The  economic  forces  gathered  from  every  quarter  of 
the  earth  and  planted  on  new  and  fertile  soil  in  their 
coalescence  produced  remarkable  effects.  Opportunities 
were  eagerly  seized  and  followed  up  with  an  intensity 
never  before  displayed  on  such  a  scale  or  with  similar  re- 
sults. 

The  colonists,  even  those  who  founded  the  federation, 
were  not  of  one  class  alone,  and  their  subsequent  sur- 
roundings and  occupations  caused  them  to  drift  still 
farther  apart.  The  proprietary  governments  in  Mary- 
land and  Virginia  were  composed  of  men  of  aristocratic 
tendencies,  loyal  to  the  king  and  to  the  church  of  England, 
who  had  left  their  country  for  political  reasons. 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   153 

The  refugees  who  landed  at  Plymouth  rock  had  fled 
from  religious  persecution;  they  held  with  Cromwell,  and 
to  their  own  forms  of  worship,  and  were  essentially  demo- 
cratic. They  cleared  the  country  as  rapidly  as  possible  of 
wild  beasts  and  wild  men,  with  their  own  hands  scraping 
off  the  snow  from  the  ground  in  the  winter,  cutting  out 
the  underbrush  in  summer,  and  building  and  planting  as 
best  they  were  able. 

The  southern  planter  lived  in  regal  state  with  servants 
and  equipages,  cultivating  with  slaves  the  tobacco  plant 
which  passed  as  money.  The  impecunious  whites  of  the 
south  were  proportionately  abased,  while  in  the  north  all 
being  poor  all  were  equal,  all  worked  and  work  was  hon- 
orable. 

It  was  perhaps  fortunate  that  the  French  in  Canada 
had  refused  to  join  the  revolutionary  movement  while  it 
was  fermenting  in  the  British  colonies,  and  so  saved  the 
United  States  from  an  unprofitable  alien  element. 

The  Quakers  in  Pennsylvania  formed  a  class  by  them- 
selves; they  might  not  fight,  nor  cheat,  nor  swear,  nor  en- 
slave, they  might  work  and  live  simply  and  friendlily. 

At  the  same  time  the  century  belonged  to  the  English; 
the  Atlantic  colonies  were  English,  the  states  when  organ- 
ized were  essentially  Anglo-Saxon,  and  though  immigra- 
tion and  increase  were  more  alien  than  English,  yet 
Anglo-American  customs,  laws,  and  literature  have  thus  far 
predominated.  How  long  this  state  of  things  will  continue, 
with  ten  millions  of  citizen  negroes  rapidly  increasing 
toward  a  hundred  millions,  and  a  million  a  year  of  low-grade 
European  immigrants  soon  to  be  citizen  aliens,  who  can  tell  ? 

For  two  centuries  New  England  stock  maintained  its 
purity  to  a  fair  degree;  after  that  it  strayed  away  and 
mixed  with  baser  blood,  while  those  who  remained  at  home 
deteriorated,  partly  from  stagnation  and  partly  from  amal- 
gamation with  a  low  European  element  which  drifted  in 
from  Halifax  and  New  York. 

The  United  States  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century 


154  RETROSPECTION 

was  quite  a  different  nation  from  the  United  States  at  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century.  And  never  before  in  our 
complex  life  were  there  such  radical  and  rapid  changes  as 
we  are  undergoing  at  the  present  moment. 

The  entire  population  for  that  matter  is  of  foreign 
origin,  but  we  are  at  liberty  to  distinguish  between  the 
early  English  and  Dutch  stock,  the  founders  of  the  Re- 
public, who  endured  revolution  and  achieved  independence, 
and  under  the  inspirations  of  freedom  of  thought  and 
action  have  made  this  country  what  it  is, — we  are  at  liberty 
to  distinguish  between  the  descendants  of  these,  whether 
living  at  present  east  or  west,  but  who  may  still  be  seen 
as  in  their  original  American  homes,  the  Virginia  gentle- 
men, the  solid  men  of  Boston,  and  the  money  rulers  of 
New  York,  Celtic,  Teutonic,  Slav, — and  the  Latin  inter- 
mixtures who  came  in  for  adoption  afterward,  however 
worthy  and  loyal  they  may  prove  to  be. 

These  later  arrivals,  numbering  twenty  to  thirty  millions, 
exercised  their  due  influence  on  the  mass  of  which  they 
formed  part  of  the  amalgam,  being  the  lower  strata  of  so- 
ciety, poor,  ignorant,  many  of  them  debased,  while  the  early 
arrivals  were  of  the  middle  class  of  a  people  foremost  in 
individualism,  of  independent  thought  and  high  aspira- 
tions. 

We  have  pretty  well  drained  northern  Europe,  but 
we  have  still  Austria,  Italy,  and  Russia  to  draw  from. 
With  these  we  may  still  swell  the  slums  of  our  large  cities, 
breed  more  American  citizens  who  cannot  speak  the  Eng- 
lish language,  and  extend  the  usefulness  of  our  sentimental 
slummers,  howsoever  little  agriculture  and  manufactures 
are  benefited  by  them. 

' '  New  varieties  of  the  American ' '  Bayard  Taylor  called 
the  long  loosely  jointed  specimens  that  came  aboard  his 
steamer  at  New  Orleans  while  en  route  for  California  in 
1849.  They  presented  the  appearance  of  what  might  have 
been  a  cross  between  poor  white  trash  and  the  impecunious 
owner  of  a  few  worthless  slaves.  And  if  slave  labor  was 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   155 

degrading  in  Virginia  it  was  more  so  in  Tennessee  and 
Missouri,  where  society  was  yet  crude  and  the  conditions 
of  domestic  life  were  less  refined. 

Quite  a  contrast  between  these  mid-continent  men 
and  the  rather  diminutive  inhabitants  of  some  of  the  more 
refined  eastern  states. 

Race  intermixtures  in  a  warm  and  fertile  soil  evolved 
in  the  southern  middle-west  a  crop  of  young  giants  revel- 
ing in  "hog  and  hominy,"  driving  negro  slaves  and  help- 
ing to  propagate  them.  "Pike  county"  was  the  generic 
term  applied  to  them  in  the  California  mines,  where  they 
were  a  distinct  type.  Awkward  in  their  movements,  with 
their  massive  bony  frame,  large  hands  and  feet,  sallow 
melancholy  unintellectual  faces,  fateful  eyes  and  the  cor- 
ners of  the  mouth  drawn  downward,  they  were  quite  a 
contrast  to  the  New  England  Yankee,  yet  of  good  use 
enough  in  empire-building. 

These  however  are  not  fair  specimens  of  the  product  of 
this  section.  Though  the  Puritan  race  in  New  England  is 
diminishing,  in  the  mid-continent  and  Pacific  states  it  is 
increasing,  though  not  as  rapidly  as  the  general  increase 
of  population. 

Thus  it  is  plainly  to  be  seen  that  these  United  States 
are  no  longer  the  America  of  England  and  Holland,  of 
the  Puritans  and  pilgrims,  of  Hancock  and  Washington 
and  Jefferson.  We  have  sold  ourselves  for  a  mess  of  pot- 
tage, for  inordinate  wealth,  which  we  have  secured,  and 
which  is  even  now  taking  revenge  on  us  by  breeding  rot- 
tenness in  our  bones. 

So  rapid  are  the  transformations  through  which  we 
have  passed  and  are  still  passing  that  every  two  or  three 
decades  seem  to  bring  us  out  into  another  world.  To 
realize  this  more  clearly,  eliminate  from  the  mind  for  a 
moment  the  new  forces  that  revolutionized  society  dur- 
ing the  first  half  of  the  last  century,  the  application  of 
steam  and  electricity,  resulting  in  the  steamboat,  rail- 


156  RETROSPECTION 

road,  and  telegraph;  and  during  the  last  half,  the  funda- 
mental forces  of  steel  and  oil,  with  numberless  new  in- 
ventions and  discoveries,  evolving  such  miracles  as  the 
floating  palaces  of  ocean,  battleships  and  liners,  wireless 
telegraphy,  the  telephone,  the  automobile,  and  the  flying 
ships.  And  the  romance  of  wealth;  a  million  a  hundred 
years  ago  was  more  than  a  hundred  millions  now. 

And  rapid  as  have  been  these  economic  evolutions, 
territorial  expansion  has  ever  been  in  advance  of  them. 
The  original  area  along  the  Atlantic  was  doubled  twice 
over,  and  its  utilization  multiplied  tenfold.  And  over 
the  wilderness  of  the  west,  metamorphosed,  the  valleys 
became  gardens,  the  grassy  plains  cornfields,  the  metal- 
liferous mountains  pasture  lands,  the  vast  deserts  fruit- 
ful fields,  the  forests  and  the  gold-veined  sierra  deposi- 
tories of  inexhaustible  wealth,  and  on  the  parched  slopes 
of  sunny  California  homes  of  paradise,  while  spread  out 
on  either  side  were  the  world's  two  greatest  oceans,  with 
their  watery  pathways  direct  to  the  seaports  of  all  nations. 

These  marvelous  developments  came  not  in  a  steady 
stream,  but  in  surges,  each  movement  marking  an  epoch. 
And  ever  as  long  as  time  rolls,  and  men  continue  to  come 
and  go  on  this  planet,  these  ceaseless  transformations  will 
continue,  to  the  affiliation  and  elevation  of  mankind.  And 
ever  the  momentous  question  will  be,  what  next?  To  the 
prophet  who  can  rede  this  riddle  belongs  the  future. 

The  population  of  the  colonies  in  1750  was  estimated  at 
one  million.  The  first  census  of  the  United  States  in  1790 
showed  a  population  of  3,929,214  of  whom  700,000  were 
negro  slaves,  60,000  free  negroes  and  80,000  Indians. 
John  Carroll  of  Carrollton,  with  an  income  of  £14,000 
a  year,  was  regarded  as  the  wealthiest  man  of  his  time, 
and  George  Washington  with  less  than  75,000  acres  of  land 
stood  next.  Then  there  was  Gouverneur  Morris  of  Morris- 
ania,  who  could  order  from  London  at  one  time  a  whole 
box  of  richly  bound  books  without  stopping  to  count  the  cost. 

The  disintegration  attending  the  distention  of  a  com- 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   157 

munity  over  a  wide  area  of  wilderness  was  met  '"by  new 
concentrations  under  new  environments,  by  which  knead- 
ing process  the  whole  mass  was  undergoing  continual 
change.  Not  only  is  this  formative  process  always  pres- 
ent, but  the  results  are  something  new,  better  or  worse 
than  the  old  it  may  be,  but  always  different;  so  that  in 
the  earlier  migrations  when  single  individuals  or  some 
part  of  a  sectional  community  from  the  Atlantic  seaboard 
had  reached  the  Pacific  they  might  not  always  be  easily 
recognizable. 

In  the  final  overspreading  with  settlements  of  the  en- 
tire country  from  ocean  to  ocean  it  was  found  that  each 
centre  of  population  held  its  type,  which  was  the  germ 
of  development  in  each  of  the  new  settlements,  new  blend- 
ings  ever  productive  of  new  results.  Thus  among  the 
original  coast  colonies  there  were  the  several  societies 
widely  distinct  in  form,  feature,  thought,  and  speech,  and 
whose  character  was  influenced  also  by  their  religion. 

Cutting  up  our  country  into  geographical  provinces, 
each  with  its  own  peculiar  physical  conditions  differing 
from  those  of  every  other,  we  find  in  each  the  meeting  of 
many  types  whose  intermingling  and  new  environment 
developed  new  types.  Hence  as  a  nation,  whatever  we 
may  become  ethically  or  politically,  we  can  never  physi- 
cally coalesce  into  a  homogeneous  whole.  The  New  Eng- 
lander  will  always  be  a  Yankee;  the  black  man  of  the 
southern  plantations  will  always  be  black.  The  Russian 
Jew  of  the  northern  sweatshops  will  always  be  a  Russian 
Jew;  while  the  Virginian  gentleman  so  long  as  he  remains 
at  home  will  be  a  gentleman,  however  much  of  a  bully 
he  may  perhaps  become  in  transplanting. 

It  explains  much  and  exonerates  much  as  to  the  conduct 
of  southerners  during  their  migratory  days,  the  fact  that 
in  their  own  country,  from  the  earliest  times,  affairs  of 
personal  honor  were  settled  out  of  court ;  the  law  was  asked 
to  intervene  in  property  rights  only. 


158  RETROSPECTION 

Wherever  the  Virginian  went  he  carried  with  him  the 
chivalrous  ways  and  courteous  manner,  until  peradven- 
ture  he  dropped  them  on  the  road,  yet  always  impressing 
upon  the  language  of  the  west  his  charming  accent.  His 
influence  for  good  and  evil  was  later  felt  in  a  marked 
degree  in  California.  Quite  different,  though  none  the 
less  impressive,  were  the  characteristics  of  the  New  Eng- 
lander,  with  his  chronic  directness,  his  persistent  applica- 
tion, and  his  thrifty  ways. 

Any  point  in  the  progress  of  this  nation,  if  we  allow 
the  mind  to  dwell  upon  it,  may  appear  to  us  as  a  special 
period  of  transition;  but  so  impetuous  has  been  the  rush 
forward  that  during  the  last  half  century  at  least  any 
special  periods  of  progress  are  scarcely  discernible. 

Americanized  by  California  gold,  by  the  passing  of  the 
frontiers,  by  war  and  railroad  and  government  graft,  by 
the  greed  of  special  interests,  it  is  no  longer  America  for 
the  Americans,  but  America  for  the  Irish,  for  the  African, 
for  the  Nipponese. 

The  light-hearted  French  and  Italians  love  pleasure, 
which  their  Teutonic  mixture,  however  it  may  modify 
makes  more  durable.  San  Francisco  is  shaping  her  course 
and  evolving  her  people  to  make  her  the  gayest  city  in 
America.  The  city  and  its  environs  invite  to  open  air, 
which  the  Latin  race  loves. 

Portland,  Oregon,  presents  a  fine  class  of  business  men, 
merchants,  and  bankers.  The  real  agricultural  people  of 
Oregon  also  are  rather  superior,  made  up  of  American, 
rather  than  a  conglomeration  of  Latin,  Teuton,  and  Nip- 
pon. The  early  settlers  of  Oregon  were  nearer  the  New 
England  type  than  the  early  settlers  of  California.  They 
were  likewise  pioneers  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  men 
and  women  who  went  before  to  remove  obstacles  and  pre- 
pare the  way  for  others,  a  class  of  people  that  never  ap- 
peared in  California  at  any  time. 

Oregon  to-day  is  more  American  than  any  state  west 
of  the  Mississippi,  one  half  of  the  original  population  be- 


ing  from  the  middle  west,  though  formerly  of  the  eastern 
seaboard,  one  third  from  the  southern  west,  and  although 
six  per  cent,  only  came  direct  from  New  England  they 
were  sufficiently  pronounced  in  character  and  intelligence 
to  implant  their  institutions  on  the  virgin  soil  of  this 
farthest  west.  A  few  Canadian  fur-hunters  dropped  down 
from  British  Columbia,  while  Germany  and  England  con- 
tributed the  rest. 

Seattle  with  its  more  modern  development  has  ac- 
complished wonders,  with  its  transpacific  and  Alaska 
trade,  its  flourishing  manufactures,  owing  to  its  self-de- 
liverance from  the  tyranny  of  labor  leaders,  for  which  su- 
perb achievement  we  must  overlook  the  fungus  growth 
of  a  politician  sent  to  Washington  for  its  sins,  to  be  white- 
washed at  public  expense  to  the  discomfiture  of  Congress 
and  the  undignified  display  of  presidential  prejudice  and 
sentimentalism. 

San  Diego  is  a  pronounced  example  of  civic  individual- 
ism as  displayed  in  the  Anglo-American  occupation  of  the 
Pacific  coast.  The  first  point  in  Alta  California  for  the 
planting  of  a  Franciscan  mission,  it  was  also  the  site  of 
the  first  Mexican  town,  and  one  of  the  first  to  accept  United 
States  ownership.  It  was  perhaps  as  interesting  a  place 
as  any  visited  by  Mr.  Dana  during  his  interesting  voyage, 
though  consisting  commercially  only  of  hides  and  tallow,  and 
ethnically  of  Indians,  Mexicans,  and  a  white  man  or  two. 

It  remained  much  the  same,  with  the  addition  of  a 
few  more  white  men  and  an  imitation  Mexican  pueblo 
government,  until  some  time  in  the  sixties,  when  there 
came  along  a  man  with  Yankee  proclivities  and  mid-conti- 
nent manners,  who  bought  all  the  pueblo  land  thereabout 
for  thirty  cents  an  acre,  selling  it  up  to  a  thousand  dol- 
lars a  lot  and  dying  without  a  dollar  he  could  rightly  call 
his  own.  Father  Horton,  he  was  called,  founder  of  the 
Horton  addition  to  the  new  town  addition  to  the  old  town, 
which  last  addition  bloomed  effulgently  before  them  all. 

Four  miles  south  on  the  bay  the  Kimball  brothers  be- 


160  RETROSPECTION 

came  possessors  of  a  Mexican  grant,  on  the  edge  of  which 
they  laid  out  a  town,  calling  it  National  city.  The  two 
brothers  possessed  one  common  characteristic  which  made 
it  unnecessary  for  any  one  to  inquire  who  they  were  or 
whence  they  came;  each  could  out-talk  any  one  except  his 
brother. 

The  deck  of  the  steamer  which  plied  between  the  ports 
of  San  Diego  and  San  Francisco  was  the  favorite  debat- 
ing ground  for  these  champions  of  the  rival  cities.  Mr. 
Horton  himself  was  facile  of  speech,  and  allowed  the  same 
liberal  margin  for  exaggeration  for  himself  that  he  granted 
to  the  brothers  Kimball ;  hence  on  these  memorable  voyages 
the  winds  and  the  waves  had  little  chance  of  being  heard. 

As  the  Horton  eloquence  took  effect,  and  the  hamlet 
began  to  grow,  Los  Angeles  became  alarmed,  fearing  a 
rivalry  detrimental  to  her  interests.  Every  fact  or  falsity 
that  could  be  employed,  every  subterfuge  that  could  be  in- 
vented, the  most  outlandish  and  bitter  lies  were  brought 
forward  to  cast  odium  on  San  Diego  and  prevent  people 
from  going  there.  The  coast  was  not  clear,  they  said, 
the  harbor  was  not  safe,  a  vessel  was  just  wrecked  on 
the  rocks,  a  boat  was  capsized  and  all  on  board  were 
drowned,  the  bay  was  full  of  sharks,  the  land  was  barren, 
nothing  doing,  nothing  ever  would  be  done.  Don't  go 
there. 

Then  came  along  the  Southern  Pacific,  passing  San 
Diego  by  for  some  wicked  offending,  and  so  the  embryo 
city  rested  from  its  labors  for  many  days. 

Meanwhile  Los  Angeles  was  reveling  in  a  triumph  of 
misrepresentation  and  vituperation.  And  made  it  profit- 
able. Dishonesty  was  the  best  policy.  How  they  feel 
about  it  now  is  difficult  to  say,  as  most  of  those  particular 
liars  are  dead. 

On  the  streets  of  San  Francisco  among  scattering  At- 
lantic Americans  we  see  many  persons  of  Teutonic  caste, 
but  there  is  no  predominating  type.  Business  men  of  the 
first  rank  are  mostly  Americans  from  the  eastern  states, 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   161 

while  the  lower  class  of  politicians  are  of  alien  origin. 
The  Oregonian  lacks  the  full  face  and  form  of  the  Cali- 
fornian,  has  a  more  refined  expression  though  somewhat 
awkward  in  bearing, — but  on  the  whole  more  American 
than  Californian,  owing  to  pure  origin,  isolation  and  re- 
tirement, and  less  alien  intermixtures,  particularly  of  the 
lower  sort. 

The  early  Anglo-Californian  was  known  as  such  the 
world  over;  large,  alert,  frank,  good-natured  features,  but 
easily  hardening  under  pressure;  manners  and  dress  alike 
worn  loosely;  a  real  or  affected  indifference  in  handling 
money,  of  which  he  would  spend  lavishly  up  to  the  last 
dollar. 

We  have  seen  how  like  the  shadow  of  a  cloud,  under 
the  sombre  influences  of  our  worshipful  pilgrim  fathers 
and  their  successors,  the  American  frontier  had  slowly 
crept  westward  from  the  Atlantic,  leaving  uncovered  the 
wealth  of  industry,  cities  towns  and  factories,  smiling 
fields  and  happy  homes.  We  have  seen  how  for  half  a  cen- 
tury this  frontier  exercised  a  magical  influence  on  Ameri- 
can thought  and  action,  ever  serving  as  a  dividing  line 
between  reality  and  romance. 

Then  presently  out  of  the  west  came  another  frontier, 
approaching  more  rapidly,  and  meeting  the  first  century 
after  Independence  at  the  great  continental  divide.  Be- 
tween these  two  frontiers  had  long  remained  a  vast  area 
of  mountain  plain  and  desert,  the  Netherland  of  American 
development,  the  last  of  United  States  territory  to  be 
reclaimed  from  savagism.  By  it  the  two  sides  of  the  na- 
tion were  held  apart,  until  there  had  developed  on  the  Pa- 
cific side  a  new  type,  but  with  essentially  the  same  interests 
and  ideals,  the  farthest  west  being  now  more  eastern  than 
the  eastern  west. 

All  through  the  period  of  greatest  expansion  in  the 
region  between  the  settled  communities  of  the  Atlantic 
seaboard  and  the  ever  elusive  frontier,  social  disorganiza- 


162  RETROSPECTION 

tion  prevailed.  It  was  not  until  two  hundred  years  after 
they  had  been  claimed  and  bought  and  sold  in  Europe, 
that  the  lands  now  constituting  the  larger  part  of  the 
United  States,  fell  under  the  influence  of  civilization,  and 
it  was  not  until  after  1846  that  the  region  beyond  the 
Mississippi  came  to  any  great  extent  into  American  life. 
Then  the  industrial  energy  of  the  east  swept  over  the  west, 
and  the  work  of  empire  building  began  anew. 

Up  to  this  time  the  population  of  the  United  States 
was  practically  American ;  that  is  to  say,  foreigners  hitherto 
had  come  in  so  slowly,  and  were  of  such  a  quality  as  to 
become  assimilated  with  no  serious  race  deterioration. 

Never  was  displayed  a  deeper  love  of  country,  never 
was  shown  greater  devotion  by  both  men  and  women,  a 
willingness  to  give  all  they  had  and  life  itself  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  their  purpose  than  by  people  of  both 
the  north  and  the  south  during  the  civil  war.  As  in  the 
early  days  of  Rome,  citizenship  was  a  precious  thing; 
to  be  one  with  the  Republic  was  a  sacred  privilege. 

Fifty  years  ago  the  average  American  was  patriotic. 
There  is  no  average  American  now,  and  he  is  not  patriotic. 
Faith  in  the  future  is  not  patriotism,  it  is  not  even  religion 
when  unattended  by  any  formative  effort. 

During  the  war  with  its  brutalizing  influence  this 
passionate  idealization  of  nationality  declined  to  a  sullen 
hatred  of  the  enemy,  and  disgust  over  the  growing  cupidity 
and  selfishness  manifest  on  all  sides.  In  like  emergency 
some  of  the  old  feeling  might  return,  but  with  the  large 
addition  of  low-grade  foreigners  the  old  patriotism  will 
scarcely  be  revived,  for  from  that  day  to  this  we  have  been 
constantly  assimilating  the  nationalities  of  Europe  and 
absorbing  them  in  our  body  politic,  each  draft  being  from 
a  yet  lower  depth  until  the  lowest  has  long  since  been 
reached,  and  still  we  draw. 

This  policy  grew  with  the  growth  of  the  country; 
wealth  and  power  must  increase  with  the  increase  of 
population.  This  was  true  up  to  a  certain  point,  which 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   163 

point  we  seem  to  have  attained,  for  increase  of  wealth  and 
numbers  no  longer  add  to  our  well-being. 

While  the  extent  of  our  riches  and  resources  was 
questioned,  we  asserted  and  insisted ;  travelling,  we  bragged 
up  to  the  limit  through  every  capital  in  Europe.  Now 
that  wealth  and  power  and  greatness  stand  undisputed, 
we  no  longer  boast. 

During  the  three  decades  from  1870  to  1900  there  was 
added  to  the  agricultural  domain  of  the  United  States  an 
area  equal  to  the  half  of  Europe,  and  every  new  tract 
wrested  from  savagism  and  thrown  open  to  occupation 
was  followed  by  a  mad  rush  of  mixed  aliens  and  Ameri- 
cans, all  eager  for  spoils. 

It  was  not  avaricious  speculators  alone  who  fancied 
they  saw  in  present  development  a  permanent  prosperity, 
but  astute  statesmen  encouraged  increase  of  numbers  as 
enlargement  of  national  advantages.  The  disorder  spread 
southward  and  broke  out  in  virulent  form  in  Georgia, 
where  a  league  was  formed  to  aid  in  the  begetting  of  chil- 
dren. Never  was  set  going  a  foolishness  so  absurd,  whether 
in  the  natural  or  the  supernatural  line,  but  that  it  found 
followers.  What  sayeth  the  preacher  who  thus  preaches 
propagation  with  so  loud  a  voice,  patting  the  woolly  head 
of  a  shambling  negro  and  presenting  him  with  a  douceur 
because  his  wife  gave  to  American  citizenship  four  at  a 
litter  ?  Does  he  not  say  quantity  before  quality ;  anything 
of  any  shape,  or  color,  or  degree  of  intelligence  may  qualify 
as  a  member  of  this  very  free  republic  ? 

And  as  for  bringing  into  the  world  innocents,  not  know- 
ing or  caring  if  any  provision  has  been  made  for  their 
upbringing,  not  knowing  or  caring  if  they  are  cursed  from 
the  beginning  with  the  poverty  and  diseases  of  their  par- 
ents, cannot  any  one  see  the  crime  of  it? 

Of  the  behavior  of  men,  civilized  or  half  civilized, 
when  thrown  together  in  a  new  land  without  a  govern- 
ment we  have  a  fair  example  in  early  California,  a  new 


164  RETROSPECTION 

land,  not  yet  cleared  of  its  low-grade  root-and-grass- 
hopper  eating  humanity,  yet  the  mildest  mannered  of 
American  savages. 

In  the  ethnic  evolution  of  Anglo-California  the  in- 
gredients of  population  were  essentially  mixed,  and  a  re- 
construction of  ideals  must  necessarily  follow  the  coming 
together  of  many  different  peoples  strangers  to  each  other 
in  a  strange  land.  In  the  mines  was  one  new  phase  of 
social  development,  and  in  the  cities  another. 

Among  those  that  came  were  some  from  every  nation 
under  heaven,  from  all  parts  of  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
America,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea.  From  the  northern 
and  middle  United  States  came  the  greatest  number,  these 
to  this  day  are  the  dominant  element  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
Next  were  the  people  of  the  southern  states,  then  Spanish 
Americans,  Irish,  Germans,  Italians,  French,  and  English; 
Scotch  and  Scandinavians,  East  Indians,  Poles,  and  Rus- 
sians ;  Arabs  and  Portuguese,  Kanakas,  South  Sea  islanders, 
and  Australians ;  Chinese,  Japanese,  and  Koreans. 

There  were  more  negroes  at  first  than  later;  they  were 
not  wanted  here  at  any  time,  being  lazy,  lying,  inefficient, 
and  variable.  Oregon  passed  a  law  at  an  early  date  that 
even  free  negroes  should  not  be  allowed  to  live  within  the 
limits  of  the  territory. 

Professor  Farrabee  says  that  a  perfect  human  develop- 
ment in  the  United  States  has  been  arrested,  if  not  ruined, 
by  the  admission  and  absorption  of  low  grade  Europeans; 
that  the  people  are  suffering  from  the  unfit  and  degener- 
ate, both  native  and  foreign  born,  but  that  the  error  may 
yet  be  rectified.  "We  have  had  an  unexampled  oppor- 
tunity," the  learned  professor  goes  on  to  say,  "to  produce 
a  perfect  race  of  men  and  women.  If  we  had  been  more 
careful  as  to  the  immigrants  we  admitted  we  could  have 
insured  an  addition  of  nearly  perfect  people.  Those  im- 
migrants of  a  couple  of  generations  ago  who  were  not  fully 
fit  have  left  a  progeny  of  still  less  fit  persons." 

That  is  to  say,  though  the  third  generation  is  worse 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   165 

than  the  second  we  may  recover  and  become  as  the  first 
if  we  do  not  further  debase  our  blood.  If  the  professor 
will  consider  for  a  moment  he  will  see  that  this  can  never 
be.  Race  perfection  is  not  a  goal  to  be  reached  by  human 
effort;  race  betterment,  an  eternal  improvement,  is  all 
that  we  can  accomplish,  and  whatever  is  lost  cannot  be 
regained.  Further,  the  low  alien  element  abroad  will 
never  be  excluded  so  long  as  the  low  alien  element  at  home 
possesses  the  power  to  admit  them. 

No  doubt  the  United  States  will  in  due  time  settle  upon 
some  kind  of  race,  notwithstanding  present  ethnic  dis- 
abilities, but  it  is  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  with  two- 
thirds  of  the  population  the  scum  of  Europe,  with  probable 
future  African  and  Asiatic  intermixtures,  the  race  will  be 
equal  to  what  it  would  have  been  had  it  remained  largely 
Anglo-Saxon  with  only  the  best  Teutonic  affiliations. 

Though  the  substance  has  departed,  we  still  apply  the 
word  American  to  the  shadow,  but  only  as  a  generic  term. 
The  Georgia  piccaninny,  or  the  New  York  son  of  a  Russian 
Jew  and  Italian  mother  are  no  more  Americans  than  if 
born  in  an  African  jungle  or  a  St.  Petersburg  ghetto, 
though  for  our  sins  made  politically  our  equal. 

As  for  line  development  in  our  new  lands  on  the  Pa- 
cific there  were  half  a  hundred  types,  or  rather  one  might 
say  every  man  was  his  own  type,  thought  his  own  thoughts, 
spoke  his  own  words,  acted  upon  his  own  instincts,  follow- 
ing his  own  inclinations,  fearless  of  God  or  the  devil,  or 
of  any  other  influence  above  or  below  save  that  mightiest 
of  all  powers  the  opinion  of  his  fellow-men. 

The  kind  or  quality  of  this  opinion,  so  ardently  desired, 
so  imperiously  demanded  marked  the  man,  determined 
his  status  in  the  scale  of  humanity,  and  gave  him  his  place 
among  his  fellows.  No  questions  need  be  asked  him  as  to 
who  or  what  he  was ;  his  name  and  birthplace  were  matters 
of  indifference.  How  he  wished  himself  to  be  regarded 
by  others;  that  was  the  man.  And  that  is  the  man  and 
the  woman,  here  and  elsewhere,  to  this  day. 


166  RETROSPECTION 

The  typical  hero  of  current  tales  of  the  Sierra  foothills 
was  the  creation  of  a  morbid  fancy  having  little  founda- 
tion in  fact.  False  impressions  were  early  abroad  as  to 
the  character  and  quality  of  the  men  searching  for  gold 
during  the  flush  times  of  California,  owing  to  a  disposition 
on  the  part  of  early  romancers  to  caricature  them.  The 
author  of  this  Retrospection  spent  some  time  in  both  the 
northern  and  southern  mines,  as  well  as  in  the  cities.  Al- 
though too  inexperienced  to  make  much  of  a  study  of  the 
people,  he  was  present  at  an  impressionable  age,  and  many 
of  the  striking  and  ever-varying  scenes  of  those  days  re- 
main as  vivid  in  his  mind  to-day  as  they  were  sixty  years 
ago.  Though  there  .was  present  enough  of  crude  origi- 
nality to  justify  some  of  the  story  teller's  flights  of  fancy, 
the  quality  of  humanity  as  presented  by  them  never  ex- 
isted. 

The  California  miner  of  '49  and  '50  was  a  plain,  prac- 
tical man,  of  good  common-sense,  honest  and  industrious. 
It  was  a  long  and  expensive  journey  to  these  mines,  and 
the  wholly  worthless  fellow  seldom  found  his  way  thither. 
Yet  he  is  presented  to  us  as  a  new  type,  unique  and  pro- 
nounced, not  in  process  of  transformation  but  finished. 
Were  it  true,  such  an  appearing  could  have  been  only  as 
the  result  of  a  miracle,  for  in  the  autumn  and  winter  of 
1849  the  mines  were  practically  abandoned,  owing  to  the 
heavy  rains  which  flooded  the  valleys  and  impeded  trans- 
portation. 

There  were  deviations,  of  course,  so  different  had  been 
the  origin  and  development  even  from  the  same  or  contigu- 
ous quarters  in  the  United  States, — we  had  not  yet  become 
accustomed  to  speak  of  California  as  in  the  United  States. 

Take,  for  example,  the  individual  and  type  christened 
in  the  mines  "Pike  County,"  before  mentioned,  from 
Pike  county,  Missouri,  whence  the  earliest  specimens  came, 
though  the  name  was  applied  to  all  of  that  quality,  whether 
from  Missouri,  Tennessee,  or  Kentucky. 

What  prolific  qualities  of  earth  and  air  may  there  be 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   167 

found  for  breeding  big  brawny  men  of  sluggish  brain  and 
strong  sinews  has  never  been  explained,  but  the  fact  re- 
mains that  in  the  California  specimens,  seven  feet  high 
with  breadth  and  weight  in  proportion  were  not  uncom- 
mon. 

Compare  the  tales  of  the  romancers  with  the  reports  of 
Governor  Riley  to  the  secretary  of  war,  August  30th,  1849. 
"Before  leaving  Monterey,"  he  writes,  "I  heard  numer- 
ous rumors  of  irregularities  and  crimes  among  those  work- 
ing in  the  placers;  but  on  visiting  the  mining  regions,  I 
was  agreeably  surprised  to  learn  everything  was  quite  the 
reverse  from  what  had  been  represented,  and  that  order 
and  regularity  were  preserved  throughout  the  entire  extent 
of  the  mineral  district.  In  each  little  settlement,  or  tented 
town,  the  miners  have  elected  their  alcaldes  and  constables, 
whose  judicial  decisions  and  efficient  acts  are  sustained 
by  the  people,  and  enforced  with  much  regularity  and 
energy. ' '  And  of  San  Francisco,  Albert  Williams  remarks, 
"Valuable  property  exposed  in  frail  structures  or  lying 
unprotected  on  the  street  was  undisturbed.  It  was 
dangerous,  it  was  also  accounted  mean  to  steal." 

The  typical  American  miner  presented  a  fair  physique, 
above  medium  height,  clean  of  limb,  with  an  honest  eye 
and  decided  opinions.  He  had  common  education,  based 
upon  good  principles,  and  thought  well  of  himself,  with 
a  conscience  pliable  enough  to  suit  his  purposes,  yet  with 
little  disposition  to  downright  wrong  doing. 

Religious  scruples  brought  from  home  melted  under 
the  compelling  sun  of  his  new  environment.  He  was  the 
best  specimen  of  manhood  ever  seen  in  these  parts,  far 
better  than  can  be  found  in  proportionate  numbers  in 
California  to-day.  He  was  fearless  and  independent,  with 
a  pride  above  pride  of  dress;  indifferent  as  to  conven- 
tions, yet  considerate  of  the  rights  and  feelings  of  others. 
At  bay  he  would  do  a  wickedness  quicker  than  a  meanness. 

There  were  present  professional  gamblers,  quiet  and 
well-behaved,  reticent  always  but  especially  so  while  en- 


168  RETROSPECTION 

gaged  at  their  occupation;  not  disposed  to  quarrel,  not 
quick  to  shoot.  The  barkeeper  conducted  himself  along 
similar  lines;  any  other  course  was  bad  business. 

As  a  rule  the  miners  at  large  were  temperate  and 
frugal;  loosed  from  all  restraint  they  let  themselves  go 
upon  occasions,  certain  of  the  riotous  sort  in  dancing, 
drinking,  shooting,  with  now  and  then  a  hanging  meeting, 
or  a  Sunday  raid  on  a  Chinese  camp  or  an  Indian 
rancheria. 

It  is  remarkable  how  quickly  outward  bearing  fitted 
itself  to  new  conditions,  how  quickly  the  economics  of  the 
mines  evolved  a  new  and  unique  order  of  society  which 
led  to  such  erroneous  estimates  of  individual  character. 

Those  men  down  among  the  boulders,  who  and  what 
are  they?  Mostly  of  the  middle  class,  I  should  say,  were 
there  any  middle  class  in  America,  the  middle  class  being 
the  best  class, — well  born,  being  American  born,  of  re- 
spectable antecedents,  educated,  brought  up  to  work,  and 
neither  rich  nor  poor. 

University  men,  not  a  few  of  them,  club  men  some  of 
them,  though  club  men  were  not  so  common  nor  so  shiftless 
then  as  now,  embryonic  lawyer,  doctor,  clergyman,  though 
the  young  parson  usually  preferred  dealing  monte  to 
digging  for  gold.  And  that  slightly  built,  pale,  boyish 
looking  young  fellow,  quiet  features,  cadaverous  skin,  and 
mild  eyes,  but  with  a  glint  of  steel  in  them — I  have  seen 
him  more  than  once;  no  one  knew  until  the  thing  was 
tried,  he  least  of  all  suspecting  it,  until  accident  brought 
it  home  to  him,  the  lust  for  blood,  for  human  butchery, 
harbored  in  his  heart,  in  the  heart  the  kindest  and  best  of 
mothers  gave  him. 

What  folly  to  talk!  As  well  attempt  to  analyze  the 
never  existent  angels  as  to  sound  the  depths  of  human 
nature. 

The  Englishman  in  the  mines  was  staid  and  sober;  he 
soon  tired  of  the  occupation  and  dropped  out  of  line.  So 
with  the  volatile  Franchman,  who  fraternized  and  worked 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   169 

in  companies.  There  were  Mexicans,  Kanakas,  and  some 
of  every  people  under  the  sun,  and  of  all  grades  of  dirt 
and  disposition. 

Some  there  were  who  had  broken  away  from  early  as- 
sociations and  habits  to  experiment  in  unknown  fields 
under  unimaginable  conditions.  They  were  of  strong 
individualism  with  self-centred  natures.  Here  were  dis- 
played forces  generated  in  distant  homes  and  liberated  in 
a  community  unrestrained  by  law  or  social  convention. 

The  spirit  of  these  gold-devouring  days  was  the  spirit 
of  individualized  absolutism.  Each  was  for  himself  and 
no  other.  He  carried  his  life  in  his  pocket,  his  hip  pocket 
as  he  fancied;  to  those  about  him  his  life  was  of  no  con- 
sequence; if  he  lost  it  that  was  his  affair.  Touch  his 
property,  his  comrades  were  quite  ready  to  help 
hang  the  thief,  as  in  the  sacredness  of  property  rights 
all  had  a  common  interest.  There  was  nothing  sacred  in 
human  life,  all  must  die  sooner  or  later;  a  little  time  more 
or  less  made  no  difference.  Entertaining  such  sentiments, 
the  greatest  of  crimes  being  theft,  the  least  of  crimes 
murder,  gold  became  king  and  ruled  royally.  On  the  hut 
floor  or  cabin  shelf  were  loose  nuggets  and  tin  cans  of 
gold-dust,  unguarded  alike,  whether  the  owner  was  off 
at  work  during  the  day  or  carousing  at  night,  none  dare 
touch  it.  Few  desired  to  touch  it;  it  was  better  to  go  out 
among  the  boulders  and  gather  it. 

Besides,  during  the  first  year  of  the  Inferno,  which  for 
the  first  year  was  not  an  inferno,  but  simply  a  gathering 
of  neighbors  and  friends,  all  was  quiet,  a  summery  picnic, 
sleeping  in  the  chaparral,  eating  meat  and  gathering  gold ; 
the  advent  of  crime  was  during  the  second  year  of  this 
new  civilization. 

If  life  was  of  little  consequence,  the  veneer  of  life  was 
still  less  regarded.  The  first  look  of  the  initiated  at  a 
new-comer  was  to  penetrate  appearances;  color,  creed, 
clothes,  all  on  the  instant  became  transparent  as  the 
qualities  of  the  man  were  laid  bare  for  inspection.  If 


170  RETROSPECTION 

he  took  kindly  to  the  use  of  his  stove-pipe  hat  for  a  foot- 
ball, and  his  baptism  in  bad  whiskey,  that  were  a  good  be- 
ginning, but  there  must  be  present  honesty  as  well  as 
amiability  to  make  a  good  devil.  It  was  a  bad  place  for 
the  vendor  of  hypocrisy  and  fraud. 

A  prominent  feature  of  the  flush  times  was  the  swift 
succession  of  startling  events,  making  a  day  seem  like  a 
year  and  a  year  a  life-time.  Up  and  down,  rich  to-day 
and  poor  to-morrow,  alive  to-day  and  dead  to-morrow ; 
here  a  town  at  midnight,  in  the  morning  ashes ;  a  fine  farm 
yesterday,  now  a  flood ;  a  start  for  home — ah !  what  thrills 
of  delight !  thrust  back  among  the  boulders  by  the  failure  of 
a  bank ;  news  from  loved  ones,  oh  hell !  disease  and  death. 

In  the  colonization  of  the  earth  the  several  European 
nationalities  were  distinctly  marked  one  from  another, 
while  in  each  nationality  the  members  were  much  alike. 
Thus  in  New  England  one  person  or  town  or  city  would  be 
similar  to  all  other  New  England  persons  or  towns  or 
cities.  So  with  regard  to  the  Quakers  and  Germans  of 
Pennsylvania,  the  Dutch  of  New  York,  the  English  of 
Virginia  and  the  Carolinas,  while  each  colony  differed 
from  all  the  others,  the  members  of  each  were  all  like  one 
another. 

So  with  mid-continent  occupation;  while  the  migra- 
tions to  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  valleys  brought  with  them 
the  individualisins  of  their  several  Atlantic  homes,  amal- 
gamations set  in  and  soon  the  many  several  settlements 
were  to  a  certain  extent  one  people. 

In  the  settlement  of  the  Pacific  coast  it  was  quite  dif- 
ferent. However  diverse  may  have  been  the  component 
parts  the  towns  and  cities  assumed  an  individualism  which 
they  retain  to  this  day. 

The  Hispano-Californian  element,  like  the  Indian,  soon 
faded  into  nothingness,  leaving  no  mark.  The  early  north 
Atlantic  people  assumed  the  supremacy,  and  still  main- 
tain it,  while  from  the  south  Atlantic  and  the  middle 


A  NEW  LAND  AND  A  NEW  PEOPLE   171 

west,  and  from  all  the  foreign  world  were  aliens  without 
number,  peoples  with  many  various  ideals  destined  here 
to  enforced  assimilation. 

Those  who  came  gold-hunting  to  California  were  not 
pioneers  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  as  I  have  said. 
They  did  not  come  to  explore,  or  to  remove  obstacles,  or 
to  prepare  the  way  for  others,  like  the  first  settlers  in  the 
valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Mississippi. 

There  were  never  any  pioneers,  properly  so  called,  to 
California,  though  there  is  a  pioneer  society  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  whose  members 
is  not  merit,  achievement,  or  intellect,  but  simply  existence, 
— they  or  their  progenitors  came  to  California  before  a 
certain  date,  if  as  horse-thieves  the  membership  require- 
ment would  be  met  all  the  same. 

The  gold-seekers  came  for  gold  and  nothing  else,  and 
their  time  having  expired  they  took  their  departure  leav- 
ing no  mark.  Agriculture  and  commerce  came  later,  when 
the  pioneering  had  all  been  done,  not  by  pioneers,  but  by 
trappers,  miners,  and  adventurers. 

The  men  whom  fate  flung  into  the  Foothills  in  1849, 
what  did  they  ?  They  dug  a  hole  and  left  it  there.  Their 
achievement  was  a  hole ;  they  did  not  even  stop  to  fill  it 
up  when  they  hurried  away  to  make  another  hole  else- 
where. Such  was  pioneering  on  this  gold-bitten  coast, 
achieving  holes  in  the  Sierra  or  saloons  in  the  city. 

Upon  the  change  of  government  from  Mexican  to 
American,  political  relations  remained  undisturbed.  Cali- 
fornians  of  the  Latin  race  at  first  fell  gracefully  into 
place,  accepting  as  truth  and  sincerity  whatever  the  agents 
of  Uncle  Sam  chose  to  tell  them.  At  the  convention  to 
form  a  constitution  Sepulveda,  Bandini,  Alvarado,  and 
others  spoke  eloquently  and  to  the  point,  gaining  the  re- 
spect and  good  will  of  their  coadjutors.  But  when  they 
found  the  words  of  the  Yankee  hollow,  and  their  promises 
vain,  their  indignation  was  aroused;  they  felt  themselves 
betrayed,  as  indeed  many  of  them  were. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    MILLS    OF    THE    GODS 

WHEN  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  was  signed 
in  that  suburb  of  Mexico  city  on  the  2d  of 
February,  1848,  the  first  knowledge  of  which  reached 
California  the  following  August,  there  stood  upon  the 
border  of  the  little  cove  on  the  inner  side  of  the  peninsula 
forming  San  Francisco  bay,  and  opposite  Yerba  Buena 
island,  a  hamlet  of  850  people  living  in  200  houses,  built 
some  of  them  of  adobe,  a  few  at  the  base  of  Telegraph  hill 
and  scattered  up  Clay  and  Sacramento  streets  being  of 
cloth. 

The  inhabitants  were  a  mixture  of  Mexicans,  Calif  orni- 
ans,  Americans,  and  a  few  aliens  who  had  been  living 
there  under  military  rule  since  1847,  at  which  time 
Washington  A.  Bartlett  was  made  alcalde,  to  be  succeeded 
by  Bryant,  Hyde,  and  Leavenworth. 

It  was  a  community  of  men  mostly,  men  of  a  somewhat 
restless  disposition  and  speculative  turn  of  mind,  yet  with 
sufficient  staying  qualities  to  remain  in  place  when  properly 
anchored  amidst  suitable  surroundings.  There  were  the 
mission  of  Dolores  well  away  on  one  side  and  the  presidio 
of  San  Francisco  off  on  the  other,  each  attending  to  its 
own  affairs,  which  were  the  affairs  of  heaven  and  of  the 
Mexican  republic,  the  saving  with  remnants  of  mission 
property  the  few  remaining  souls  of  a  castaway  humanity. 

Open  portal  from  the  great  Pacific  to  these  realms  was 
the  Golden  Gate,  so  called  and  so  mapped  long  before  Kit 
Carson  had  shown  Benton's  son-in-law  the  way  to  Cali- 
fornia, or  Sutter  had  paddled  his  boat  up  the  Sacramento, 
or  Marshall  had  seen  the  color  of  gold  in  the  tail-race. 

172 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  173 

Away  back  in  1835,  long  enough  ago  when  considered 
in  relation  to  the  awakening  of  these  shores,  the  English- 
man Richardson  had  moved  over  from  Sausalito,  and  clear- 
ing away  the  chaparral  and  yerba  buena,  or  sweet  smelling 
herb,  which  gave  its  name  to  the  little  cove  where  it  grew, 
had  set  up  a  trading-tent,  as  a  place  better  suited  to  his 
hide  and  tallow  business  and  more  accessible  to  his  female 
customers  from  the  ranchos  south  and  across  the  Bay. 

The  next  inhabitant  was  an  American,  Jacob  P.  Leese, 
who  came  up  the  following  year  from  Los  Angeles,  and 
with  his  friends,  William  Hinckley  and  Nathan  Spear  from 
Monterey,  put  up  a  substantial  frame  building,  in  which 
they  conducted  their  business.  Others  came  straggling 
along,  the  Hudson  Bay  company  establishing  a  branch 
there  in  1841. 

Now  and  then  a  famous  navigator  like  Vancouver 
Kotzebue  or  La  Perouse,  Roquefeuil  or  Beechey  would 
anchor  before  the  Cove,  and  landing  pay  his  compliments 
to  the  sleepy  village.  Then  after  visiting  the  Mission 
and  Presidio,  perhaps,  or  mounting  a  bronco  and  rolling 
off  sailor  fashion  in  a  ride  to  San  Jose,  calling  in  on  the 
patriarchal  rancheros,  they  would  finally  take  their  depar- 
ture amidst  many  cheap  compliments,  of  which  the  Cali- 
fornians  kept  always  on  hand  a  good  supply. 

Thus  the  embryo  metropolis  of  the  Pacific  was  set  upon 
its  feet  and  given  a  push  into  the  future,  several  pushes, 
in  fact,  and  most  remarkable  ones. 

First,  the  name.  General  Vallejo  in  1846  had  given  five 
square  miles  of  land  on  the  strait  of  Carquinez  for  the 
capital  city  of  California,  and  promised  to  build  the  nec- 
essary legislative  halls  provided  the  seat  of  government 
should  be  placed  there,  and  should  bear  the  name  of  his 
wife  Francisca.  It  was,  and  is,  in  every  respect  the  most 
suitable  spot  around  the  Bay  for  an  imperial  city,  and 
none  better  in  all  the  world,  and  it  was  making  rapid 
progress  in  that  direction  when  Alcalde  Bartlett  and 


174  RETROSPECTION 

Colonel  Folsom,  the  latter  United  States  quartermaster, 
put  their  heads  together  and  contrived  a  little  Yankee 
trick,  which  decided  the  destinies  of  the  two  cities  forever, 
and  filled  the  Hispano-Californians  with  disgust. 

This  was  no  less  than  to  change  the  name  of  Yerba 
Buena  to  San  Francisco,  which  was  done,  and  the  place 
pointed  out  to  arriving  vessels  as  the  city  of  the  Bay. 
Further  still,  our  Seraphic  Father,  pleased  by  the  compli- 
nent,  and  willing  to  ignore  the  mercenary  part  of  it,  sounded 
the  call  of  gold  throughout  the  world,  and  brought 
within  the  year  to  this  his  distant  port  a  fleet  of  six  hun- 
dred sail,  crowded  with  adventurers  hungry  for  the  bait. 

All  along  the  dreams  of  the  sleepers  at  the  Cove  had 
been  troubled  with  visions  of  the  future,  visions  some  of 
them  too  brilliant  to  be  comfortable. 

Since  the  appearance  on  the  coast  of  United  States 
government  officials,  and  the  representatives  of  European 
powers,  with  the  hide  and  tallow  traders  at  the  Cove, 
some  thoughts  of  a  future  metropolis  at  this  point  had  been 
entertained,  though  opinion  was  divided  as  to  the  relative 
importance  of  Yerba  Buena,  Monterey,  and  Francisca,  the 
city  of  the  strait.  "It  is  a  good  country,"  they  used  to 
argue  in  their  dreams,  "better  than  the  Mayflower  people 
had,  and  a  harbor  far  superior  to  that  of  which  the  New 
York  Dutchmen  boast. 

"Well,  they  were  nothing  once,  had  not  even  hides  and 
tallow  behind  them,  and  that  was  only  two  hundred  years 
ago;  we  should  be  as  great  as  New  York  in  two  hundred 
years.  Why  not?  We  will  sleep  further  on  it." 

But  the  days  of  dreams  and  nights  of  sleep  were  over. 
Here  was  a  consummation!  Each  day  was  two  hundred 
years,  each  night  a  century. 

Every  people  must  have  a  history,  if  only  wherewith 
to  embellish  school-books.  And  every  history  must  have 
in  it  some  fighting  and  bloodshed,  else  it  is  unworthy  to  be 
regarded  as  history,  though  it  might  not  improperly  be 
called  butchery.  It  is  a  little  difficult  however  to  make 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  175 

anything  heroic  out  of  the  deeds  of  the  American  fili- 
busters known  as  the  Bear  Flag  party,  or  even  of  the  doings 
of  the  military  men  in  California  at  that  time. 

James  A.  Forbes  was  British  consul,  and  J.  S.  Moer- 
enhaut  French  consul.  Thomas  0.  Larkin's  functions  as 
United  States  consul  at  Monterey  ceased,  of  course,  with 
the  treaty. 

It  was  the  transition  period  from  the  old  to  the  new, 
the  years  1846  to  1848.  Mission  and  military  rule  both 
must  give  way  to  a  government  by  the  people,  at  first  a 
rabble,  flotsam  blown  in  from  the  ocean,  with  trappers 
percolating  through  the  mountains  to  fill  up  afresh  with 
whiskey  and  dance  with  the  seiloritas,  in  whose  eyes  a  man 
with  a  white  skin  was  as  an  angel  from  heaven.  There  was 
present  no  pretence  of  law  except  in  the  towns,  where  a 
sprinkling  of  Americans  were  already  contending  for 
office. 

Stockton,  Kearny,  and  Fremont,  after  their  several 
military  and  diplomatic  antics  with  the  generals  and 
admirals  of  the  army  and  navy,  had  taken  their  departure. 

Already  in  full  swing  were  two  newspapers,  the  Cali- 
fornian  Star  by  Samuel  Brannan,  and  the  Califomian 
brought  up  from  Monterey  by  Robert  Semple.  Brannan 
had  brought  out  in  the  ship  Brooklyn  the  type  and  outfit 
of  a  Mormon  paper,  the  Prophet,  which  he  had  previously 
published  in  New  York.  The  two  journals  were  after- 
ward united  as  the  Star  and  Calif ornian,  but  from  the  be- 
ginning of  1849  became  known  as  the  Alia  California. 

In  the  east  and  north,  beyond  the  line  of  missions  ex- 
tending from  San  Diego  to  San  Francisco  bay,  it  was  all 
open  unclaimed  country,  save  a  few  scattering  settlers  and 
the  occupants  of  certain  Mexican  grants. 

Vallejo  at  Sonoma,  Sutter  at  Sacramento,  Doctor  Marsh 
at  Livermore,  Gilroy  on  his  rancho  south  of  San  Jose, 
Yount  in  Napa  valley,  Stone  and  Kelsey  at  Clear  Lake, 
Sheldon  on  the  Cosumnes,  and  Wolfskill  at  Putah  creek, 
represented  interior  California  at  that  day. 


176  RETROSPECTION 

The  most  important  towns  outside  of  San  Francisco 
were  the  pueblos  of  San  Jose  and  Los  Angeles,  where  lots 
were  sold  at  first  as  in  San  Francisco  at  twenty-five  cents 
per  front  vara.  In  Napa  valley  a  town  site  was  laid  out, 
and  when  two  shacks  were  set  up  it  was  hailed  in  the  Yerba 
Buena  press  as  Napa  city. 

Ignacio  Pacheco  ruled  at  San  Rafael  as  juez  de  paz, 
followed  later  by  Timothy  Murphy  as  alcalde,  the  latter 
being  also  in  charge  of  the  ex-mission  property. 

Water  and  vegetables  were  brought  from  Sausalito, 
where  stood  Reed's  cabin,  and  where  whalers  used  to 
winter.  Later  a  boat-tank  was  built  and  water  piped  into 
it  and  served  on  the  hither  side  of  the  Bay  from  water- 
carts. 

A  ludicrous  feature  in  the  municipal  development  of 
San  Francisco  was  the  early  appearance  of  sectional 
rivalry,  reminding  one  of  chicks  just  out  of  the  shell  as- 
suming a  belligerent  attitude  toward  each  other. 

The  rival  sections  were  only  four  blocks  apart,  one 
being  at  the  foot  of  Clay  street,  one  at  the  foot  of  Broad- 
way, and  one  at  the  foot  of  California  street. 

The  Jackson  street  lagoon  at  Montgomery  street  was 
filled  up  at  public  expense.  At  the  foot  of  Clay  street, 
which  was  in  the  centre  of  the  Cove  half  a  block  from 
Montgomery  street,  was  a  little  wooden  wharf  extending 
out  into  the  shallow  water.  The  foot  of  Broadway,  near 
the  base  of  Telegraph  hill,  extended  below  Battery,  where 
the  water  was  deeper,  and  where  also  a  little  wharf  was 
constructed.  California  street  at  that  time  terminated 
at  Sansome  street,  where  also  was  the  pretence  of  a  wharf. 

The  relative  advantages  were  the  central  locality  with 
a  bad  landing  at  Clay  street,  as  against  the  better  but  more 
distant  landings  at  California  street  and  at  Broadway. 
Later  as  the  Cove  was  filled  up,  the  Clay  street  wharf  was 
extended  to  nearly  half  a  mile  from  Montgomery  street. 

Prominent   in   the   Clay   street   faction   were   Nathan 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  177 

Spear,  William  S.  Hinckley,  J.  P.  Leese,  Jean  Vioget,  Mellus 
and  Howard,  Ward  and  Smith,  Cross  and  Hobson,  and 
William  G.  Rae.  Champions  of  Broadway  landing  were 
S.  J.  Hensley,  J.  K.  Ackerman,  DeWitt  and  Harrison, 
Peter  Wimmer,  Ira  T.  Steffins,  B.  R.  Buckelew,  and  Jasper 
O'Farrell;  while  interested  in  California  street  were  John 
R.  Robbins,  William  Pettet,  William  Foster,  Brannan, 
Larkin,  Doctor  Townsend,  Clark,  Hastings,  and  others.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  these  are  nearly  all  English  or  Ameri- 
can names. 

Other  rivalries  were  at  hand,  contentions  among  the 
alcaldes,  two  ayuntamientos,  and  duplicate  maps  on  which 
names  of  the  streets  were  in  some  instances  changed. 
Later  there  were  land-titles,  the  slavery  question,  the  Chi- 
nese question,  craft  and  graft;  but  we  have  sufficient  to 
claim  our  present  attention  without  referring  to  the  more 
modern  events. 

A  survey  was  made  by  Vioget  in  1839;  Jasper  O'Far- 
rell also  made  a  survey  and  lots  were  placed  on  sale,  50 
varas  at  $12  and  100  varas  at  $25  each,  after  1200  had 
been  granted  or  sold  for  municipal  expenses  for  the  first 
three  years. 

A  map  signed  by  Alcalde  Bartlett  calls  Battery  street 
Battery  place;  Sansome  is  Sloat  street,  Pacific  is  Bartlett 
street,  Sacramento  street  is  called  Howard,  and  the  names 
of  Dupont  and  Stockton  streets  are  reversed.  Thus  Du- 
pont  street  has  had  three  namings,  and  worse  might  be 
done  than  to  change  it  again. 

In  a  spasm  of  political  enthusiasm  incident  to  the  re- 
turn of  General  Grant  from  his  trip  around  the  world, 
the  flag  of  Admiral  Dupont  was  hauled  down  and  that 
of  the  later-made  great  man  raised  in  its  stead. 

In  our  latter-day  rejoicing  the  names  of  two  others  of 
our  immaculate  mayors  appealing  to  our  gratitude  sug- 
gest another  change  for  this  much  named  avenue  of  Du- 
pont and  Grant.  Consider  how  the  patriotic  hearts  would 
swell  within  us  as  the  car  conductor  called  out  "Eugene 


178  RETROSPECTION 

Schmitz  street,"  or  "P.  H.  McCarthy  street,"  and  how 
could  we  better  honor  lower  Market  street  than  by  giving 
it  the  illustrious  name  of  one  who  has  loved  it  long  and 
dearly,  that  we  might  ever  hear  amidst  the  rattle  of  the  horse- 
cars  adorning  it  the  reminiscent  sound  of  "Patrick  Cal- 
houn  street." 

He  who  later  was  General  Sherman  was  there  but  ob- 
tained no  street.  Nor  did  Clark  Leidesdorff  or  Stevenson, 
Gillespie  Ward  or  Halleck  fare  much  better,  some  of  them 
having  only  a  back  alley  to  do  them  honor.  Hyde  street 
might  have  been  given  a  name  of  better  repute ;  one  whom 
everybody  is  trying  to  cheat  is  pretty  sure  to  be  trying  to 
cheat  everybody. 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  names  of  Montgomery, 
Kearny,  Stockton,  Grant,  Fremont,  or  Folsom  should  have 
been  given  to  the  most  prominent  streets,  none  of  these 
men  ever  having  rendered  important  service  or  become 
identified  in  any  way  with  the  interests  of  the  city  or 
state,  as  was  the  case  of  Larkin,  Sutter,  Vallejo,  Howard, 
Brannan,  Broderick,  and  Leavenworth.  Still  less  have 
we  any  cause  to  honor  Polk,  Fillmore,  Gough,  Steiner,  or 
O'Farrell,  and  others  similar  both  alien  and  American, 
while  Van  Ness  is  scarcely  the  name  to  apply  to  the  finest 
boulevard  in  the  city.  It  is  small  honor  for  a  great  man 
but  great  honor  for  a  small  man  thus  to  have  his  name 
given  to  a  street. 

Pending  a  treaty  of  peace  between  Mexico  and  the 
United  States,  alcaldes  who  had  been  elected  or  appointed 
continued  to  administer  justice  according  to  their  ideas  of 
Mexican  law  and  the  old  usages,  appealing  in  difficult 
cases  to  the  governor,  whose  policy  it  was  to  interfere  as 
little  as  possible. 

Then  began  to  appear  something  more  imposing  and 
effective  in  the  form  of  special  courts  for  special  service 
organized  under  the  fragmentary  laws  lying  around,  left 
over  from  alcalde's  courts  and  military  orders,  as  the  ap- 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  179 

pointing  of  Sutter  and  Vallejo  to  supervise  in  the  trial  of 
certain  members  of  the  Mormon  battalion  for  passing 
counterfeit  gold  coin,  Stephen  C.  Foster  and  Abel  Stearns 
acting  as  judges. 

So  at  Santa  Barbara,  Benjamin  Foxen  wa&  tried  before 
specially  appointed  judges  for  killing  Augustin  Davila 
whom  he  caught  stealing  his  chickens  near  Santa  Inez. 
The  jury  consisted  of  six  Californians  and  six  Americans, 
and  the  verdict  was  four  years  imprisonment. 

While  confidential  agent  of  the  United  States  at  Los 
Angeles,  Abel  Stearns  was  made  sub-prefect,  with  Gallardo 
and  Sepulveda  as  alcaldes.  Later  the  city  was  under  mili- 
tary rule,  with  Salazar  and  Avila  as  alcaldes. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  affairs  when  the  gold-seekers 
arrived,  the  dominant  element  among  them  being  free  white 
American  citizens,  as  they  sometimes  styled  themselves, 
flushed  with  a  sense  of  their  own  importance,  the  impor- 
tance of  this  new  acquisition  of  territory,  and  impressed 
most  of  all  with  the  fact  that  here  were  bushels  of  gold  to 
be  picked  up  by  those  who  should  prove  to  be  the  best 
scramblers  after  it. 

We  should  not  expect  to  find  in  such  a  class  so  con- 
ditioned any  waste  of  patience  over  bars  of  justice  which 
a  strong  arm  might  remove  at  pleasure,  least  of  all  the 
tolerance  of  the  pettifogging  system  so  common  in  courts 
of  law  throughout  Christendom.  The  temper  of  the  town 
quickly  changed.  The  alcaldes  ceased  their  bickerings, 
the  Mormons  their  street  preachings,  and  the  chronic 
loafers  were  galvanized  into  some  show  of  activity. 

The  reign  of  justice  was  early  inaugurated  by  men  who 
later  became  prominent  as  good  citizens.  Although  ar- 
rivals by  land  and  by  water  up  to  the  autumn  of  1849  were 
constant,  yet  for  a  time  in  midsummer  there  was  an  air 
of  quiet  about  the  place  while  the  people  were  away  at  the 
mines.  Portsmouth  square,  or  the  Plaza,  was  the  civic 
centre,  where  were  enacted  the  dramas  of  the  day,  tragic 
and  comic. 


180  RETROSPECTION 

On  Sunday,  the  15th  of  July,  of  this  memorable  year, 
a  singular  spectacle  presented  itself  upon  the  streets.  Up 
to  this  time  little  thought  had  been  given  to  crimes  or 
criminals,  as  there  were  present  none  to  speak  of,  either 
in  the  cities  or  in  the  mines.  Good  men,  for  the  most  part, 
had  come  from  neighboring  places  to  gather  gold,  not  to 
prey  upon  each  other.  They  had  no  desire  to  steal.  But 
from  some  Australian  vessels  which  had  arrived  of  late 
had  crept  in  criminals  from  the  penal  settlements  of  Great 
Britain,  notably  from  Sydney,  who  were  just  now  be- 
ginning to  make  their  presence  felt  in  San  Francisco. 

This  Sunday  had  been  appointed  by  the  wicked  ones 
for  the  opening  of  their  carnival  of  crime.  The  Hounds 
they  at  first  called  themselves,  but  upon  reconsideration  they 
fancied  that  Regulators  sounded  better ;  their  headquarters 
was  a  tent  on  Kearny  street  which  they  called  Tammany 
hall. 

In  fantastic  array,  with  banners  flying,  and  armed  with 
clubs,  knives,  pistols,  or  whatever  they  could  lay  hands  on 
as  weapons  of  war,  they  sallied  forth.  Skirting  the  busi- 
ness quarter,  then  bounded  by  Kearny  and  Washington 
streets,  they  passed  on  by  the  Plaza  and  down  Jackson  to 
Montgomery  street,  and  then  to  Telegraph  hill,  where  was 
a  suburb  settlement  of  Chileans  and  Mexicans.  Upon 
these,  most  of  the  men  being  absent,  they  charged  right 
valiantly,  putting  the  women  and  children  to  flight  without 
the  loss  of  a  single  man. 

Taking  whatever  they  chose  from  the  spoils  of  the 
conquered,  and  flushed  with  victory,  they  returned,  march- 
ing through  Montgomery  street,  and  dropping  in  on  their 
way  at  the  stores,  which  were  always  open  on  Sunday, 
helped  themselves  to  whatever  they  fancied  with  the  curt 
explanation,  "Charge  it  to  Tammany  hall."  Thereupon 
they  returned  in  triumph  to  headquarters. 

Instigated  to  this  bold  act  by  the  air  of  quietude  which 
pervaded  the  place  on  this  peaceful  Sabbath  morning, 
the  gentlemen  from  abroad  soon  learned  that  there  wer« 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  181 

still  men  enough  at  hand,  and  of  the  proper  quality,  to 
take  care  of  themselves  and  of  the  town. 

Officially,  California  was  as  yet  neither  a  territory  nor 
a  state,  only  a  country  stolen  from  Mexico  and  held  by 
superior  force,  the  light  military  rule  being  next  to  nothing, 
the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  still  permitting  the 
shadow  of  Mexican  jurisprudence  to  hover  over  the  primal 
region  so  newly  gilded  with  gold.  Hence  there  were  pres- 
ent in  the  usual  form  neither  law  nor  government;  but 
there  was  justice,  which  is  better  than  law  or  government 
when  the  law  is  used  to  defeat  the  efforts  of  justice  and 
the  government  is  administered  by  ignorant  and  unprin- 
cipled aliens  for  their  own  benefit. 

However  this  may  be,  early  next  morning  Justice  stood 
boldly  forth  at  the  street  corner  in  young  San  Francisco; 
and  there  came  along  Frank  Turk,  F.  J.  Lippitt,  Hall  Mc- 
Allister, grim  old  Horace  Hawes,  afterward  author  of  the 
Consolidation  act,  which  saved  to  the  city  so  much  money 
and  law  waste ;  P.  Barry,  who  sold  the  best  of  whiskey  over 
the  bar;  Myron  Norton,  later  one  of  San  Francisco's  best 
and  purest  judges,  and  Sam  Brannan,  ubiquitous  Sam,  still 
king  of  the  Mormons,  and  not  at  all  bashful.  Sam  could 
declaim  equally  well  on  saints  or  sinners.  These  and 
others  met,  and  talked,  and  went  their  way  to  meet  again 
at  noon. 

Law  is  a  good  thing  when  held  in  its  proper  place  by 
justice ;  so  justice  stood  by  and  fully  acquiesced,  indulging 
itself  in  no  tricks  of  law  to  overthrow  the  law,  while  230 
men  enrolled  themselves  as  a  police  force,  arrested  nine- 
teen of  the  gay  Regulators,  including  Roberts,  leader  of 
the  gang,  and  confined  them  on  board  the  United  States 
ship  General  Warren,  then  lying  at  anchor  in  the  harbor. 

A  grand  jury  was  impaneled,  indictments  found,  and 
trial  held,  justice  still  smiling  on  law,  which  was  present 
mainly  in  theory.  Among  others  there  were  Gillespie  and 
Howard,  Simmons  and  Spofford.  William  M.  Gwin,  later 


182  RETROSPECTION 

United  States  senator  from  California,  and  James  C.  Ward 
were  chosen  associate  judges  to  assist  T.  M.  Leavenworth, 
alcalde  and  shadow  of  the  law.  F.  J.  Lippitt,  Hall  Mc- 
Allister, Horace  Hawes,  and  Frank  Turk  were  appointed 
prosecuting  attorneys,  and  P.  Barry  and  Myron  Norton 
assigned  for  the  defence.  A  verdict  of  guilty  was  ren- 
dered by  the  jury,  and  the  penalties  of  imprisonment  for 
various  terms  pronounced. 

About  the  same  time  five  mutineers  who  had  attempted 
the  life  of  an  officer,  were  caught  and  tried,  Commodore 
Jones  and  Hall  McAllister  officiating.  As  there  was  pres- 
ent no  high  court  of  interference  to  grant  a  new  trial,  on 
conviction  they  were  punished,  two  shot  and  three  im- 
prisoned, the  affair  being  concluded  within  four  days. 

Thus  was  lawfully  executed  justice  without  law,  some- 
thing our  latter-day  jurists  seem  to  find  it  difficult  to 
arrive  at. 

Other  arrests  were  made  with  similar  results,  and  the 
incident  was  closed — rather  a  tame  affair  as  introductory 
to  a  reign  of  right,  and  one  which  even  law  could  find 
little  fault  with. 

A  beneficial  influence  on  court  proceedings  as  well  as 
on  society  in  general  came  with  the  arrival  during  the  sum- 
mer of  W.  B.  Almond,  from  Missouri,  who  was  at  once  in- 
stalled judge  of  the  First  Instance,  a  court  superior  to 
that  of  the  alcalde's.  Judge  Almond  was  a  man  of  ability 
and  honesty,  and  not  afraid  to  act  upon  his  convictions. 
Verbiage  in  court  proceedings  he  detested,  and  an  appeal 
to  judicial  inbecility  in  the  way  of  hair-splitting  was  not 
allowed. 

To  represent  the  law  prior  to  admission  as  a  state  there 
were  the  military  governor  at  Monterey,  an  alcalde  or  jus- 
tice of  the  peace  at  each  of  the  towns,  and  an  ayuntamiento 
or  town  council  at  the  larger  places.  A  dismantled  brig, 
the  Euphemia,  lying  in  the  Cove  at  Front  street  was  pur- 
chased and  used  as  a  jail. 

The  treaty  with  Mexico  continued  Mexican  forms  of 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  183 

government  in  force  when  not  in  conflict  with  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States.  The  law  as  administered  by  an 
alcalde's  court,  and  the  superior  court  of  First  Instance, 
were  relics  of  old  Mexican  methods,  which  American  law- 
yers and  judges  treated  with  little  consideration,  but  took 
the  law  into  their  own  hands  and  ruled  in  defiance  of  law 
as  occasion  required. 

In  1851  it  was  the  counsel  for  the  burglars  only  that 
spoke  for  law  and  order,  but  in  1856  lawyers,  judges, 
murderers,  thieves,  ballot-box  stuffers,  newspaper  men, 
gamblers,  harlots,  officials  of  all  sorts  and  assassins  of  the 
Cora  and  Casey  stripe,  all  cried  lustily  for  the  law  to 
throw  its  aegis  over  them  and  protect  them  from  just 
punishment  for  their  sins. 

Please  make  a  note  of  it,  that  since  the  quietus  put  upon 
public  immorality  by  the  uprising  of  1851,  yet  to  be  de- 
scribed, the  law  had  remained  undemonstrative,  and  good 
order  prevailed.  But  no  sooner  had  law  began  to  stir 
itself  than  evil  doings  appeared  again,  for  law  was  the 
safest  protection  of  crime ;  Cora,  Casey,  and  all  the  notori- 
ous criminals  of  the  later  time,  immediately  on  their  arrest 
sought  the  jail,  the  judges,  and  the  courts  as  a  sanctuary, 
a  harbor  of  rest  where  they  knew  themselves  to  be  safe. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  exalt  the  rule  of  lawless  mobs, 
something  San  Francisco  has  never  yet  seen.  I  merely 
state  the  fact,  and  further  remark  that  lawless  mobs  are 
not  made  of  law  abiding  citizens.  Before  these  self-asser- 
tive men  evil  doers  slunk  away.  There  were  no  more  rob- 
beries or  murders  after  the  incipient  attempt  just  men- 
tioned until  the  advent  of  law.  No  sooner  had  law  become 
firmly  established,  with  all  its  old-time  forms  and  furbe- 
lows, than  hydraheaded  crime  crept  forth  and  smiled. 

"Hah!  this  is  something  like  old  times,"  said  the  men 
of  Sydney ;  and  they  of  the  fire-eating  south  responded 
"It  is  like  old  times." 

For  a  year  after  the  Hounds  episode,  peace  reigned  in 
the  effervescent  hamlet,  and  strangers  walked  the  dark 


184  RETROSPECTION 

streets  unafraid.  Then  more  English  convicts  came  in 
from  Sydney  and  began  to  fire  the  inflammable  houses, 
and  to  steal,  and  to  kill.  "Whereupon  up  rose  the  same 
level-minded  citizens,  still  following  forms  of  law  but 
without  seeking  from  New  York  or  Missouri  twist  or  tech- 
nicality which  should  free  the  scoundrels  and  enable  them 
to  burn  what  was  left  of  the  town,  they  straighway  hanged 
some  and  sent  the  others  back  to  their  old  Australia  home. 

This  ever-shifting  society,  however,  was  not  sufficiently 
sterilized  long  to  hold  in  check  new  forces  for  evil,  whether 
in  the  form  of  estrays  from  the  convict  colonies  of  Eng- 
land, or  deflections  from  the  paths  of  rectitude  in  proxi- 
mate quarters. 

During  the  winter  of  1849-50  heavy  rains  in  the  moun- 
tains and  floods  in  the  valleys  drove  the  inhabitants  to  the 
towns,  and  before  spring  depredations  were  in  full  blast. 
Incendiary  fires  were  frequent,  and  there  were  robberies 
or  murders  nearly  every  day.  Six  times  within  three  years 
San  Francisco,  or  the  greater  part  of  it,  was  burned,  as 
elsewhere  mentioned. 

In  the  summer  of  1851  crime  broke  out  afresh,  the 
source  being  further  arrivals  af  aliens  from  every  quarter. 
Here  was  the  beginning  on  the  Pacific  of  the  bad  policy 
of  admitting  every  sort  of  humanity  to  the  free  participa- 
tion in  all  benefits  of  our  commonwealth,  of  our  land,  our 
gold,  our  institutions,  to  the  general  demoralization  of  the 
people. 

Making  their  nest  in  a  place  called  Sydney  valley,  they 
drank  and  slept  by  day,  issuing  forth  at  night  to  fire,  pil- 
lage, and  murder.  They  were  probably  not  the  vilest 
human  element  in  the  world,  though  their  advent  at  this 
time  was  a  curse  and  their  presence  a  moral  pestilence. 
As  their  numbers  increased,  the  gang  divided,  some  going 
to  Sacramento  and  others  to  the  mines.  With  our  present 
courts  and  criminal  practice,  they  could  have  continued 
their  depredations  indefinitely. 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  185 

A  Committee  of  Vigilance,  or  Board  of  Public  Safety, 
was  organized  by  700  of  the  best  citizens,  with  constitu- 
tion, by-laws,  executive  officers,  and  a  bank  account.  It 
was  somewhat  different  from  any  organization  ever  before 
effected  on  a  similar  scale  and  by  such  a  class  of  men. 

Again  a  period  of  tranquillity,  until  in  1856  the  young 
bay  city  suddenly  found  itself  in  the  toils  of  another 
monster  of  iniquity,  not  this  time  men  from  England's 
convict  colony,  but  from  our  own  dear  native  land,  from 
Philadelphia,  the  traditional  city  of  peace  and  purity; 
from  Virginia,  the  home  of  gentle  chivalry;  from  Texas, 
the  land  of  bowie-knife  bravery. 

These,  translated  by  the  ethnic  influence  of  the  unac- 
customed air,  and  by  the  somewhat  too  free  association 
with  exhilarating  women  and  wine,  had  by  some  strange 
logic  of  their  own  come  to  regard  themselves  as  the  proper 
rulers  of  the  people  gathered  here,  and  henceforth  they 
proposed  to  exercise  their  rights  in  this  respect. 

They  were  of  a  different  order  of  humanity  they 
claimed,  from  the  damned  pork-sellers  of  Front  street,  as 
in  their  classic  phraseology  they  alluded  to  the  merchants 
and  business  men  of  the  city,  though  of  that  same  pork, 
southern  chivalry  would  have  no  hesitation  to  purchase 
and  never  pay  for,  if  the  gentlemen  might  obtain  it  on 
credit.  Were  they  not  of  the  first  families  of  Virginia, 
F.  F.  V.'s  for  short?  Neither  they  nor  their  ancestors 
had  been  accustomed  to  work,  and  as  for  trade,  it  was 
vulgar. 

Politics  they  took  to  naturally;  office  was  theirs  and 
the  spoils  of  office,  the  latter  to  be  measured  by  their  free 
will  and  necessities.  To  rule  was  their  native  air;  it  was 
the  province  of  others  to  work  and  support  them,  as  men 
worked  for  Queen  Victoria  and  her  thousand  of  sisters 
and  sons,  to  work  and  pay  the  proper  tax,  that  there 
should  always  be  something  in  the  public  coffers  for  them 
to  steal. 

Time  passed  while  the  new  nationalism  unfolded  from 


186  RETROSPECTION 

Portsmouth  square.  On  the  upper  side  rose  the  engine- 
house  of  the  Monumental  fire  company,  whose  bell  rang 
the  citizens  to  arms  and  felons  to  their  death.  The  win- 
dows of  the  St.  Francis  hotel,  on  the  upper  Clay  street 
corner  of  the  Plaza,  blinked  in  the  morning  sun  after  a 
night  of  revels,  the  noise  from  which  rolled  up  from  the 
great  gambling  houses  below. 

Slowly  tolled  the  engine  bells  at  this  fresh  offering  of 
the  people  at  the  shrine  of  justice,  the  California  com- 
pany's bell  striking  first  and  then  the  Monumental  bell.  It 
was  John  Jenkins  they  were  hanging  to  a  high  beam  of 
the  veranda  at  the  south  end  of  the  old  adobe  custom- 
house building,  for  incendiarism,  robbery,  and  murder. 

Next  was  James  Stuart,  murderer,  thief,  and  so  forth, 
with  Frank  Pixley  as  his  attorney,  arrested,  tried,  con- 
demned, and  hanged  by  the  citizens.  Two  others,  Whit- 
taker  and  McKenzie,  hanged  at  the  Committee  rooms  on 
Battery  street,  and  some  thirty  imprisoned  or  sent  away 
concluded  the  work  of  the  Committee  of  1851. 

In  1856  the  work  of  the  Committee  was  about  the  same, 
four  hanged,  Cora  and  Casey  at  one  time,  Hetherington 
and  Brace  at  another  time,  and  a  number  of  others  im- 
prisoned or  expatriated. 

As  compared  with  the  offenses  the  punishment  was 
light.  As  compared  with  the  crimes  and  punishments  in 
other  places,  murders  and  robberies  by  the  thousand,  the 
achievement  was  small.  But  it  was  sufficient;  the  effect 
was  pronounced. 

Justification?  They  would  indeed  have  needed  justi- 
fication had  they  stood  inanely  by  trembling  before  the 
bogy  law,  or  fearful  of  their  own  shadow  as  did  their 
successors  at  a  later  day. 

Throughout  California,  in  the  mines  and  on  the  plains, 
in  Oregon  and  British  Columbia,  as  well  as  in  and  around 
the  great  desert,  during  all  this  period  of  non-rule,  arbi- 
trary justice  held  in  check  crime,  which  otherwise  would 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  187 

have  rendered  the  country  uninhabitable.  In  every  place 
were  certain  good  citizens,  who  organized  as  a  moral  force, 
and  after  a  brief  but  fair  and  effective  trial  of  those  caught 
in  criminal  acts,  some  were  hanged  and  others  driven  away. 
Everywhere  like  prompt  and  efficient  work  was  done  and 
crime  was  intimidated. 

After  Idaho  was  dismembered  and  Montana  given  a 
territorial  organization  in  1864,  and  the  yield  of  gold 
became  large,  Henry  Plummer,  chief  of  a  band  of  eighty 
robbers  was  made  sheriff.  All  went  swimmingly  for  a 
time;  the  stages  and  pack-trains  carried  large  quantities 
of  treasure  and  Plummer  found  the  game  easy  and  inter- 
esting. When  the  trick  was  discovered  a  vigilance  com- 
mittee of  a  thousand  members  was  organized  and  arrests 
were  made.  Certain  lawyers  who  offered  their  services 
for  the  defense  were  driven  from  the  country,  and  in  due 
time  Plummer  and  fifty  others  were  hanging  from  trees 
in  different  parts  of  the  territory.  Such  wholesale  opera- 
tions in  the  mountains  made  the  achievements  at  the 
Golden  Gate  look  small. 

The  characteristics  of  crime  and  criminals  in  San 
Francisco  in  1851  refer  to  a  common  class  of  felons, 
thieves,  burglars,  and  murderers,  nearly  all  of  them  for- 
eigners. The  criminal  class  of  1856  moved  in  the  higher 
walks  of  life,  and  its  members  regarded  themselves  as 
constituting  the  best'  society.  There  were  the  governor, 
three  supreme  court  judges,  and  nearly  all  of  the  smaller 
judges  and  justices  of  the  peace,  city  and  county  officials, 
newspaper  proprietors,  and  a  large  following  of  high-class 
loafers. 

Their  crimes  were  as  a  rule  political,  but  they  were 
free  with  bowie-knife  and  pistol  whenever  any  one  stood 
in  their  way.  They  were  mostly  Americans,  and  southern- 
ers, slave-holders  of  Virginia  and  fire-eaters  from  Texas 
and  the  Carolinas,  like  the  big  Indians  and  the  big  Eng- 
lishmen, too  proud  or  too  lazy  to  work,  yet  not  above  liv- 
ing on  the  work  of  others. 


188  RETROSPECTION 

They  usurped  the  offices  of  town,  county,  and  state, 
and  as  a  class  were  as  distinct  as  are  the  high-crime  anti- 
prosecution  people  of  to-day.  They  were  largely  hibitues 
of  gambling  saloons  and  familiar  with  prostitutes.  The 
people  were  their  prey,  the  merchants  and  business  men 
they  regarded  as  mercenaries,  while  mechanics  and  other 
laborers  were  poor  white  trash. 

I  cannot  honor  the  names  and  deeds  of  all  this  high 
society  set  of  the  olden  time  on  these  pages,  suffice  it  to 
say  that  among  their  number  were  governors  and 
chief  justices,  the  Honorable  Judge  Edward  McGowan, 
thief  and  cutthroat  like  the  others,  who  though  not  all 
of  them  criminals  of  the  common  order  were  most 
of  them  high-class  men-killers ;  Billy  Mulligan,  court  official 
and  tout;  Casey,  editor;  Cora,  pimp;  Nugent,  editor;  Jack 
Hays,  sheriff;  Palmer  Cook  and  company,  cutthroat  bank- 
ers and  manipulators  of  the  public  funds;  I.  C.  Woods, 
manager  of  Adams  and  company,  insolvent  express  men 
and  bankers;  J.  Y.  McDuffie,  United  States  marshal  and 
gambler;  honest  Harry  Meiggs,  absconder;  Yankee  Sul- 
livan, ballot-box  stuffer,  and  a  prosecuting  attorney  who 
would  never  prosecute  one  of  those  who  had  helped  to  elect 
him.  The  difference  of  high  society  criminality  then  and 
now  was  that  southern  chivalry  loved  manslaughter  while 
the  northern  pork-sellers  love  money. 

Such  were  the  limbs  of  the  law  during  this  reign  of 
law,  the  fundamental  principle  of  which  was  that  never 
one  of  the  fraternity  however  guilty  should  be  punished. 

Here  are  some  of  the  doings  that  led  to  the  greatest  of 
popular  demonstrations,  in  the  cause  of  civic  righteous- 
ness, without  subversion  of  the  law  or  of  the  government, 
that  the  world  has  ever  seen,  namely,  the  San  Francisco 
Vigilance  Committee  of  1856. 

James  King  of  William,  native  of  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  former  banker  of  San  Francisco,  issued  on 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  189 

the  8th  of  October,  1855,  the  first  number  of  the  Evening 
Bulletin,  in  which  prominent  offenders  were  attacked 
with  a  virulent  pen.  Warned  by  his  friends  that  his  life 
was  in  danger  he  scourged  offenders  more  severely  than 
ever. 

Charles  Duane,  Casey,  Cora,  "Woolly  Kearny,  Billy 
Mulligan,  Yankee  Sullivan,  Martin  Gallagher,  Tom  Cun- 
ningham, and  all  that  class  of  shoulder-striking  ballot- 
box  stuffing  politicians,  high-crime  judges,  and  all  ruffians 
who  made  themselves  conspicuous  in  public  affairs,  like 
the  notorious  politico-banking  firms  of  Palmer  Cook  and 
company,  and  Adams  and  company,  he  tore  in  pieces  with 
almost  savage  ferocity. 

Charles  Cora  brutally  shot  to  death  United  States 
Marshal  Richardson;  then  he  nestled  safely  in  the  bosom 
of  the  law  until  the  long  arm  of  vigilance  dragged  him 
forth.  Billy  Mulligan,  his  keeper,  was  Cora's  friend. 

Burst  forth  the  Bulletin,  "Hang  Billy  Mulligan.  That's 
the  word!  If  Mr.  Sheriff  Scannell  does  not  remove  Billy 
Mulligan  from  his  present  post  as  keeper  of  the  county 
jail,  and  Mulligan  lets  Cora  escape,  and  if  necessary  to 
get  rid  of  the  sheriff,  hang  him,  hang  the  sheriff ! ' ' 

"The  fact  that  Casey  has  been  an  inmate  of  Sing  Sing 
prison,  in  New  York,  is  no  offense  against  the  laws  of 
this  state;  nor  is  the  fact  of  his  having  stuffed  himself 
through  the  ballot-box  as  elected  to  the  board  of  super- 
visors from  a  district  where  it  is  said  he  was  not  even  a 
candidate,  any  justification  for  Mr.  Bagley  to  shoot  Casey, 
however  richly  the  latter  may  deserve  to  have  his  neck 
stretched  for  such  fraud  on  the  people. ' ' 

On  the  12th  of  December  the  editorial  of  the  Bulletin 
says:  "The  people  of  this  city  are  not  in  favor  of  taking 
the  law  into  their  own  hands  if  justice  can  be  done  in  the 
courts ;  and  no  class  of  men  can  be  found  in  this  com- 
munity more  in  favor  of  law  and  order  than  the  members 
of  the  vigilance  committee.  But  if  the  courts  were  to  re- 
lapse into  the  former  farcial  apologies  we  had,  it  would 


^- 

190  RETROSPECTION 

require  but  a  few  hours  to  again  call  into  action  the  same 
body  of  men,  as  before,  the  best  business  men  of  the  city 
as  members  and  co-workers." 

"Bets  are  offered,"  King  writes  on  the  22d  of  Novem- 
ber, "that  the  editor  of  the  Bulletin  will  not  be  in  exist- 
ence twenty  days  longer." 

On  the  14th  of  May,  1856,  James  King  of  William  was 
shot  by  James  P.  Casey,  who  was  hanged  by  the  vigilance 
committee  on  the  22d,  just  as  the  undertakers  were  thrust- 
ing the  coffined  martyr  into  the  plumed  hearse,  which  led 
the  procession,  two  miles  in  length,  away  to  the  lone  moun- 
tain. 

The  day  after  the  assassination  the  editorial  column 
of  the  Bulletin  was  a  blank,  speaking  louder  in  its  whit  3 
empty  silence  than  even  when  filled  with  the  flaming  words 
of  its  director. 

The  vigilance  committee  of  1851  had  never  been  for- 
mally disbanded,  yet  a  new  organization  was  at  once  effected 
with  William  T.  Coleman  at  its  head,  which  at  the  comple- 
tion of  its  work  numbered  ten  thousand  of  the  best  citizens 
of  San  Francisco. 

The  governor,  with  Captain  Sherman  and  Mr.  Garri- 
son, went  about  among  the  citizens  to  see  what  could  be 
done.  Coming  upon  the  president  of  the  committee,  Mr. 
Coleman,  they  asked  him  what  was  the  trouble. 

"Outrages  are  of  a  constant  occurrence,"  he  said. 
"Our  suffrages  are  profaned,  our  fellow-citizens  are  shot 
down  in  the  street,  while  the  courts  afford  us  no  redress." 

"The  courts  are  the  proper  remedy;  there  is  no  neces- 
sity to  raise  a  mob,"  replied  the  governor. 

"Sir,"  said  Coleman,  "this  is  not  a  mob,  but  a  delib- 
erate body  of  law-abiding  citizens  pledged  to  do  their 
duty.  It  is  a  government  within  a  government,  the  very 
heart  of  government  pulsating  under  the  poisonous  effects 
of  uurebuked  villainy.  You  know  as  well  as  I  that  it 
is  idle  to  look  for  justice  at  the  hand  of  these  courts  of 
law." 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  191 

On  the  south  side  of  Sacramento  street,  below  Front, 
rooms  were  secured,  and  a  fortress  of  bags  filled  with  sand 
was  constructed  and  called  Fort  Gunnybags. 

John  Nugent,  Irish  duelist  and  friend  of  southern 
chivalry,  was  the  able  editor  of  the  most  influential  news- 
paper of  the  city,  the  source  of  whose  greatest  profit  was 
the  advertisements  of  the  auctioneers,  which  filled  every 
morning  a  page.  This  journal,  the  Herald,  during  the 
earlier  part  of  the  crusade  was  stanch  on  the  side  of  the 
stranglers,  as  the  men  of  vigilance  were  sometimes  called. 
In  their  previous  efforts  the  Herald  was  loud  in  its  com- 
mendation of  latter-day  vigilance,  but  when  crime  became 
aristocratic  the  Herald  grew  quite  rabid  in  denouncing 
those  who  opposed  it. 

The  merchants  met  and  took  away  their  auction  adver- 
tisements, and  gave  them  to  the  Alto,  California,  Next 
morning  a  blank  white  page  was  seen  where  the  auction 
advertisements  were  wont  to  be.  Whereupon  this  bluff: 
"We  assure  those  gentlemen  who  have  joined  in  this  un- 
just, wanton,  and  despicable  crusade  against  us  that  we 
will  make  them  hide  their  heads  for  very  shame  before 
we  are  done  with  them. ' ' 

Poor  little  foxy,  mettlesome,  Johnny  Nugent !  Small,  of 
light  complexion  and  delicate  features,  soft  and  slow  of 
speech,  modest  and  sensitive,  yet  lion-hearted  and  intel- 
lectually great;  he  made  his  one  mistake,  only  one,  and 
then  with  his  great  journal,  which  truly  had  been  a  bright 
light  for  half  a  decade,  flickered  and  went  out. 

Justice  Terry  was  a  hard  nut  for  vigilance  to  crack. 
The  smell  of  blood  made  him  furious.  Unable  to  resist 
the  temptation,  he  stepped  from  the  supreme  bench  at 
Sacramento  and  came  to  San  Francisco  to  mingle  in  the 
fray.  He  stabbed  in  the  neck  Hopkins,  a  vigilance  cap- 
tain, sent  to  arrest  one  of  Terry's  friends.  Terry  was 
arrested,  confined  for  several  weeks  in  the  vigilance  rooms, 
underwent  a  long  trial,  was  convicted,  condemned,  and — • 
set  at  liberty. 


192  RETROSPECTION 

The  city  at  first  was  indignant  at  his  discharge,  but 
soon  sober  reason  returned.  To  hold  long  incarcerated 
so  high  a  criminal,  if  not  impossible  was  contrary  to  the 
policy  or  purpose  of  the  Committee,  whose  object  was  to 
stifle  crime  and  not  to  usurp  the  government.  This  su- 
preme judge  would  have  been  taken  from  their  hands  by 
state  or  federal  forces,  turned  over  to  the  law  and  sent  back 
to  his  seat  of  justice. 

After  a  lingering  illness  Hopkins  recovered,  else  Terry 
would  have  hanged. 

Never  had  any  civilized  city  witnessed  a  more  impres- 
sive spectacle  than  the  final  parade  and  retirement  of  this 
band  of  citizens.  Brave  men  and  true,  self-sacrificing  and 
determined,  they  saw  their  city  foul  with  immorality  and 
crime  and  rose  up  and  purged  it.  Soberly,  dispassionately, 
they  had  performed  their  unwelcome  task,  not  one  mis- 
take, not  a  single  discordant  note  of  passion;  then  they 
laid  down  their  power,  the  almighty  power  of  the  people 
whenever  the  people  choose  to  exercise  it,  and  returned  to 
their  personal  affairs,  good  citizens  all,  respecters  of  the 
law,  still  obedient  to  the  law  in  the  face  of  the  jeering  law- 
mongers  who  employ  the  law  ionly  to  serve  their  own 
purposes. 

It  is  doubtful  if  San  Francisco  will  ever  see  another 
uprising  like  this.  The  population  is  less  American  and 
more  alien,  more  mercenary  now  than  then;  there  is  less 
manhood  in  the  mixture,  less  courage,  less  patriotism. 
Conflicts  will  come,  capital  against  labor  and  high  crime 
against  the  people;  the  battle  has  yet  to  be  fought  out, 
but  it  will  be  more  brutal  and  bloody,  and  ruled  less  by 
reason,  than  was  the  case  in  the  quiet  citizen-revolution 
of  1856. 

Pray  the  gods  that  their  mills  may  be  kept  running 
until  the  superstition  and  chicane  which  govern  our  courts 
of  law  shall  be  ground  out,  when  justice  and  judges  shall 
be  something  more  than  mechanisms  chained  to  the  Jug- 
gernaut of  form,  when  right  shall  precede  precedent. 


THE  MILLS  OF  THE  GODS  193 

when  lawyers  shall  not  be  allowed  to  insult  men  and  tor- 
ture women  on  the  witness  stand,  when  competent  and 
responsible  judges  shall  do  the  work  of  ignorant  and 
stupid  jurymen,  when  accusers  shall  be  required  to  act 
promptly  and  make  good  their  accusation  or  drop  it,  when 
court  routine  shall  be  conducted  more  upon  the  principles 
of  common-sense  and  common  honesty,  more  work  and  less 
delay  being  required  of  judges  who  should  dispose  of  their 
cases  in  one-fifth  of  the  time  now  taken,  when  justice 
shall  be  considered  before  law  and  the  spirit  of  the  law 
before  the  letter  of  the  law,  when  rich  and  poor  shall 
be  treated  alike,  and  insanity,  informality,  or  other  like 
trivial  pretense  shall  not  shield  a  convicted  criminal. 

The  world  moves.  We  may  be  sure  that  a  change  will 
come,  that  our  courts  of  law  will  not  always  be  courts  of 
charlatanry,  and  that  administrators  of  the  law  will  be 
something  else  than  images  cast  in  bronze  set  up  for  the 
embarrassment  of  the  people. 

"Though  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly. 
Yet  they  grind  exceeding  small ; 
Though  with  patience  he  stands  waiting, 
With  exactness  grinds  he  all." 


CHAPTER   XI 

THE      INTERREGNUM 

LIKE  the  swing  of  the  pendulum  which  regulates  the 
running  of  the  clock  the  progress  of  civilization 
sways  to  the  right  and  to  the  left,  thus  preserving  the 
happy  mean  which  alone  endures  with  time. 

For  there  is  no  period  in  progress,  whether  for  a  year 
or  for  a  day,  of  which  we  can  say  all  has  been  well,  or 
all  has  been  ill;  wherefore  we  must  differentiate  political 
periods  and  strike  a  balance  in  order  to  determine  of  any 
epoch  if  wickedness  was  then  in  the  ascendent  or  if 
righteousness  reigned.  When  there  are  mainly  honest 
men  in  office  and  a  moral  tone  pervading  the  community, 
although  vagrant  rascality  may  be  hovering  about  the 
purlieus,  we  feel  justified  in  saying  that  here  we  have  an 
Interregnum  of  crime,  particularly  when  the  beginning 
and  end  of  the  term  are  both  marked  by  a  preponderance 
of  evil. 

Thus  in  the  brief  residence  of  Americans  upon  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  we  find  in  all  not  more  than  two 
score  years  of  a  government  by  the  people  for  the 
people. 

These  notable  years,  which  were  they?  Following  the 
purification  by  the  vigilance  committee  of  1851,  and  before 
the  advent  of  southern  chivalry,  and  their  expatriation  by 
the  grand  tribunal  of  1856  there  were  three  years.  From 
1856  to  the  coming  of  the  railroad  men  in  1870  were  four- 
teen years.  Then  forty  years  in  the  valley  of  humilia- 
tion. A  bright  morning  of  promise,  a  black  cloud  of 
crime,  deliverance  of  the  people  by  the  people,  then  crime 

194 


THE   INTERREGNUM  195 

and  deliverance  again,  the  latter  deliverance  not  the  work 
of  the  people,  but  of  one  man  of  the  people. 

There,  then,  were  the  epochs  of  republican  history 
reckoned  by  periods  of  wrong  doing — seven  years  of 
criminal  sway  from  1849;  fourteen  years  interregnum  of 
crime  from  the  vigilance  deliverance  of  1856;  forty  years 
of  disgraceful  subserviency  to  corporate  crime  until  the 
final  delivery  by  Hiram  Johnson. 

How  delightful  to  walk  the  clean  streets  newly  swept 
of  vice!  How  exquisite  to  breathe  the  pure  air  from  the 
ocean  and  the  dunes  unmixed  with  immorality!  Wives 
and  daughters  may  now  go  forth  unattended,  fearing  no 
insult  or  wanton  leer  from  male  or  female  passer  by. 
Cleanliness  is  good;  virtue  is  better  than  vice;  purity  is 
preferable  to  filth.  Sons  and  subordinates  can  walk  about 
with  uplifted  mien  and  thoughts  less  sordid  and  eyes  less 
sensuous,  while  the  windows  of  voluptuous  halls  are  boarded 
over,  and  the  lights  in  the  great  gambling  saloons  are  ex- 
tinguished never  to  be  renewed. 

As  with  the  advent  of  law  crime  broke  out  afresh  in 
the  new  communities,  so  with  the  subordination  of  law 
and  the  rise  of  justice  crime  disappeared.  Then,  again, 
we  endeavor  to  fit  the  machinery  of  law  to  our  necessities, 
and  become  once  more  that  delectable  entity  law-abiding 
citizens,  in  which  effort,  however,  we  are  only  partially 
successful. 

Even  in  our  modern  Republic,  as  in  days  of  old,  the 
few  rule  the  many.  Humanity  is  so  timid,  so  fearful 
amidst  the  thunderings  of  Sinai,  the  rattling  of  the  heavens 
and  the  quakings  of  earth,  that  we  are  never  content  with- 
out some  despotic  heel  upon  our  necks,  whether  of  govern- 
ment, law,  or  religion. 

At  the  elections  following  the  disbandment  of  the  vigil- 
ance committee  of  1856  the  veto  was  larger  than  ever 
before,  and  the  best  and  purest  men  were  placed  in  office. 
For  a  brief  period  citizens  throughout  the  state,  mindful 


196  BETROSPECTION 

of  their  duty,  attended  the  polls  and  took  an  interest  in 
public  affairs,  though  in  time  growing  lax  again,  as  it 
always  has  been  and  always  will  be. 

The  new  government  was  wholly  without  means,  the 
slippery  ones  when  they  were  swept  away  taking  care  first 
to  sweep  the  public  tills.  Judge  of  the  police  court  was 
Henry  P.  Coon,  deacon  of  Calvary  Presbyterian  church, 
and  a  very  good  deacon,  too;  likewise  a  good  judge,  not 
much  of  a  lawyer,  but  all  the  better  for  that;  he  was  a 
physician  in  good  practice,  serving  rich  and  poor  alike. 

The  doctor,  unanimously  elected,  seated  himself  on  the 
judicial  bench  prepared  to  make  short  work  of  the  cases 
brought  before  him  every  morning.  He  was  kind  to  the 
culprits;  he  was  kindness  itself;  yet  he  well  knew  that 
kindness  alike  to  the  just  and  to  the  unjust  consisted  in 
putting  a  stop  at  once  to  wickedness  of  every  sort;  where- 
fore the  justice  he  dealt  out  with  swift  decision  was  of  the 
brightest  quality,  undimmed  by  the  pleas  of  pettifoggers. 

Well,  when  this  late  hotbed  of  unsavory  law  was 
opened  to  the  light  and  fumigated  by  the  presence  of 
honesty,  it  was  discovered  that  there  was  no  court  record- 
book,  the  rascals  having  stolen  that  too.  Which  fact  be- 
coming known  to  the  elect  outside,  as  the  ravens  fed 
Elijah  so  this  court  was  served,  though  by  a  crow  of  an- 
other color,  in  the  tall  gaunt  form  of  a  wholesale  liquor- 
dealer,  James  Dows  by  name,  who  on  the  opening  of  the 
new  court  was  seen  striding  through  the  crowd  with  a  huge 
blank  book  under  his  arm,  which  he  laid  on  the  clerk's 
table  with  the  remark,  "Contribution  to  the  court,"  and 
turning  on  his  heel  walked  away. 

For  a  period  of  fifteen  years  at  this  juncture  San 
Francisco  enjoyed  the  best  of  governments.  The  country 
at  large,  following  the  flush  times,  was  distinguished  by 
the  diversity  of  its  characters  and  accomplishments.  There 
were  in  1851,  as  we  have  seen,  convicts  from  Australia 
and  criminals  from  Mexico  whose  specialties  were  burglary 
and  murder.  These  were  quickly  disposed  of  by  the 


THE  INTERREGNUM  197 

citizens,  and  there  was  peace  again.  Then  presently  there 
came  from  the  south,  from  the  first  families  of  Virginia, 
those  who  assumed  the  offices  of  government  as  by  divine 
right,  providence  assisting  with  bowie-knives  and  false- 
bottomed  ballot-boxes,  the  pork-sellers  aforesaid  defray- 
ing the  cost  of  government. 

There  were  Texas  fire-eaters,  Louisiana  gamblers,  and 
some  quite  bright  election  jugglers  from.  Philadelphia, 
the  judges  sharing  in  the  loot  and  looters  assisting  in  the 
halls  of  justice.  Some  were  hanged  and  some  were  shipped 
away,  as  we  have  seen,  and  the  air  was  pure  again.  The 
work  of  the  grand  tribunal  had  been  well  and  thoroughly 
done.  Intimidated  crime,  its  throne  vacated,  slunk  away 
into  obscurity.  Alien  usurpers  and  southern  chivalry 
were  relegated  to  the  haunts  of  indolence  and  vice.  Ras- 
cality was  no  longer  in  vogue ;  immorality  ceased  to  flaunt 
in  gay  colors  on  the  public  streets;  the  people  declared 
their  preference  for  honesty  and  decency  in  high  places. 
Good  men  came  forward  and  accepted  office,  regardless  of 
any  sacrifice  of  personal  interests.  Those  who  had  given 
their  time  and  pledged  their  worldly  goods  to  the  purga- 
tion of  the  city  would  not  leave  it  to  be  quickly  overrun 
again  by  the  rank  weeds  of  misrule. 

Among  the  leading  spirits  of  the  Interregnum  were 
Charles  Doane,  sheriff,  late  commander  of  the  vigilant 
military  forces;  Thomas  H.  Selby,  hardware  and  lead 
works;  William  T.  Coleman,  merchant  and  guardian  of 
the  public  weal,  late  president  of  the  vigilance  committee ; 
MacCrellish,  politic  proprietor  of  the  Alia  California,  one 
well  paid  for  his  loyalty;  Judge  McKinstry,  Judge  Shat- 
tuck;  Smiley,  auctioneer;  Newhall,  auctioneer,  Billings, 
lawyer  and  founder  of  the  First  Presbyterian  church; 
Roberts,  merchant  and  founder  of  Calvary  church;  all 
the  city  offices  were  filled  by  honest  and  efficient  men. 
Stephen  J.  Field  took  his  seat  on  the  state  supreme  bench, 
later  of  the  United  States  Supreme  court,  an  able  and 
for  the  most  part  an  upright  man. 


198  RETROSPECTION 

The  Interregnum  secured  a  sound  basis  of  government 
in  the  consolidation  act,  the  work  of  Horace  Hawes,  before 
mentioned,  the  chief  aim  of  which  was  municipal  retrench- 
ment by  merging  the  double  city  and  county  government 
into  one,  and  reducing  the  number  of  officials  with  their 
large  pay  or  fees.  There  are  other  towns  still  paying 
two  men  to  do  the  work  of  one  which  might  well  follow  this 
example.  Taxes  were  limited  to  one  dollar  and  sixty-five 
cents,  of  which  thirty-five  cents  was  for  schools.  The  con- 
traction of  debt  by  the  municipality  was  prohibited. 

Burnett,  California's  first  governor,  was  a  plain  man 
of  common  honesty;  McDougal,  the  second  governor,  was 
a  gentleman  addicted  to  deep  potations  and  of  no  honesty 
at  all.  Honest  and  easy  the  squatters  called  John  Bigler, 
the  third  governor.  About  Neely  Johnson,  Weller,  and 
Latham  there  is  little  to  be  said;  they  were  each  the  usual 
every-day  politician  of  the  time,  neither  more  nor  less. 

It  was  during  the  last  days  of  whiggism,  and  several  new 
political  parties  were  being  invented  and  tried,  as  the 
people's  party,  the  independent  party,  the  union  party, 
know-nothing,  American,  and  other  parties  finally  settling 
down  into  the  republican  party. 

In  the  legislature  of  1855  a  fierce  struggle  arose  over 
the  election  of  a  United  States  senator,  in  which  Gwin  and 
Broderick  played  prominent  parts. 

David  C.  Broderick  was  a  peculiar  political  figure,  a 
product  of  the  time  and  place,  yet  not  a  type;  he  was  an 
Irishman,  born  in  Kilkenny  in  1820.  His  father,  a  stone- 
cutter, worked  on  the  Capitol  at  Washington;  the  son's 
trade  was  that  of  American  politician.  Opening  a  saloon 
and  joining  a  fire  company  in  New  York,  he  became  a 
true  blue  Bowery  boy,  and  started  out  for  Congress.  A 
very  proper  though  modest  beginning  for  one  so  lately 
from  Kilkenny. 

Strange  to  say  he  failed  in  New  York,  and  came  to 
California  in  1849,  ready  to  try  again  and  profit  by  past 


THE  INTERREGNUM  199 

experience.  Out  of  cheap  gold  he  coined  so-called  five 
and  ten  dollar  pieces  worth  $4  and  $8  respectively,  and 
made  money.  There  was  no  cheating  about  it,  no  pretense 
that  the  coins  were  of  full  value;  they  passed  about  freely 
enough  for  a  time  and  that  is  all  people  cared  about  it. 
So  with  the  octagonal  fifty  dollar  slug,  worth  forty-five  dol- 
lars. Then  Mr.  Broderick  studied  law  and  aspired  to  the 
United  States  senate.  We  may  yet  see  a  Kilkenny  president. 

As  time  passed  on  and  the  young  Irishman  gathered 
strength  with  experience  in  his  ebullient  environment,  he 
displayed  marked  ability.  Politics  were  easy  then,  so 
many  of  the  competent  men  were  just  gold-smitten  ad- 
venturers and  nothing  else.  Elected  to  the  state  senate, 
he  became  speaker  and  presided  with  wisdom  and  decorum. 
Strong  in  body  and  mind,  instinctively  honest  and  direct 
in  all  his  moods,  he  naturally  was  assertive  and  im- 
patient under  restraint,  which  made  him  enemies  as  well 
as  friends. 

Opposed  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  he  came  in  con- 
flict with  southern  chivalry,  and  certain  gentlemen  of  that 
school  determined  on  his  death.  It  was  arranged  that 
one  after  another  should  challenge  him  to  mortal  combat 
until  he  should  fall.  Indeed  the  risk  of  the  fire-eaters  was 
slight,  as  all  were  expert  with  the  pistol,  and  familiar 
with  the  tricks  of  the  trade,  while  Broderick  was  a  novice 
and  no  murderer.  He  had  fought  duels  before  in  a  big 
boyish  way,  not  wishing  to  kill  or  to  be  killed.  Terry 
played  with  blood,  not  with  boys.  Nor  had  the  time  ar- 
rived when  a  California  politician  could  decline  a  duet 
and  retain  his  influence. 

The  southerners  most  prominent  during  the  earlier 
days  of  the  Interregnum  were  the  able  and  prominent 
lawyer,  A.  P.  Crittenden;  John  C.  Hays,  Texas  ranger; 
David  S.  Terry,  state  supreme  judge;  Charles  S.  Fairfax, 
speaker  of  the  state  assembly;  Calhoun  Benham,  Philip 
T.  Herbert,  who  shot  a  colored  waiter  in  Washington; 
Edmund  Randolph,  and  others  of  like  character. 


200  RETROSPECTION 

A.  P.  Crittenden,  one  of  the  most  genial  and  courteous 
of  gentlemen,  was  shot  to  death  by  Laura  D.  Fair,  on  the 
Oakland  ferry  boat,  while  seated  in  the  midst  of  his  family, 
whom  he  was  escorting  home  from  a  visit  to  the  east.  Of 
the  cruel  and  unprovoked  crime  there  were  hundreds  of 
witnesses,  yet  the  trial  ran  through  two  or  three  years, 
the  farcial  proceedings  filling  a  thousand  pages  of  print. 
The  citizens  pay  the  cost  and  the  woman  is  set  free. 

Upon  the  death  of  D.  D.  Colton,  lawyer  and  railroad 
sharp,  it  was  whispered  that  he  was  stabbed  by  a  woman, 
though  his  physicians  swore  so  vehemently  that  he  was 
killed  by  a  fall  from  a  bucking  bronco  that  people  felt 
confident  that  the  alleged  assassination  was  true.  How 
proud  we  should  be  of  law,  and  the  illustrious  limbs  of  the 
law,  when  two  of  its  shining  lights  could  be  thus  quietly 
snuffed  out,  as  was  alleged,  and  no  penalty  exacted. 

In  the  Broderick-Gwin  imbroglio,  Terry  was  the  first 
to  challenge,  and  indeed  no  other  challenge  was  necessary. 
Broderick,  nervous  and  awkward,  fired  before  his  weapon 
was  fairly  raised;  Terry,  cool  and  deliberate,  sent  his  ball 
an  inch  below  the  heart. 

"Ah,  I  fired  too  low!"  he  said,  and  went  away  to 
breakfast. 

"They  killed  me  because  I  was  opposed  to  the  exten- 
sion of  slavery  and  a  corrupt  administration,"  were  Brod- 
erick's  last  words. 

Land  titles  came  in  for  serious  controversy,  the  public 
domain  and  mineral  lands  and  Mexican  pueblo  rights 
all  claiming  attention.  Squatter  riots  were  not  infrequent, 
sometimes  ending  in  bloodshed. 

A  navyyard  and  branch  mint  were  established;  also 
a  system  of  coast  surveys,  and  a  land  commission  for  the 
settlement  of  private  claims  and  the  survey  of  the  pub- 
lic lands. 

It  was  thought  that  the  Mexican  titles  in  California 
might  be  adjudicated  in  two  or  three  years  by  creating 


THE   INTERREGNUM  201 

a  commission  of  registration  to  sit  in  the  northern  and 
southern  districts,  to  receive  from  claimants  such  written 
evidence  of  title  and  right  of  possession  as  they  might 
have  received  or  chose  to  present,  together  with  whatever 
other  evidence  they  had  to  offer  in  support  of  their  claim, 
all  of  which  should  be  furnished  to  the  state  surveyor- 
general,  who  should  proceed  to  segregate  those  claims  as 
fast  as  their  examinations  were  completed;  and  where 
disputes  as  to  boundaries  occurred  which  could  not  be 
adjusted  by  the  claimants,  arbitrators  should  be  called  in, 
and  their  decision  should  be  final,  the  United  States  issu- 
ing a  patent  for  the  land  as  thus  bounded. 

Had  this  been  done  in  good  faith,  most  of  the  lands  in 
California  covered  by  Mexican  grants  would  have  been 
cut  up  and  disposed  of  to  settlers  at  low  prices,  whereas 
by  keeping  claims  in  court  for  from  eight  to  twelve  years 
to  feed  the  hungry  cormorants  of  the  law,  not  only  were 
the  holders  ruined  but  the  occupation  and  improvement 
of  the  lands  by  those  who  wished  to  purchase  them  were 
prevented.  Another  example  of  the  justice  and  efficiency 
of  our  laws  and  law  manipulators. 

During  the  Interregnum  the  economic  as  well  as  the 
political  interests  of  the  city  and  country  advanced  as 
never  before,  for  the  beneficial  influence  of  the  San  Fran- 
cisco vigilance  committee  of  1856  had  extended  over  the 
entire  state,  opening  broad  avenues  of  industry,  both 
agricultural  and  manufacturing. 

Woolen  mills  were  set  up  at  the  Mission  and  their 
product  became  famous  the  world  over.  Large  factories 
of  boots  and  shoes,  hats,  clothing,  grain  and  fruit  bags, 
were  established;  wine-cellars  were  filled;  the  ship-yards 
rang  with  the  noise  of  the  hammer,  the  steel  industry 
developed  largely,  and  famous  battle-ships  were  built  in 
competition  with  the  best  yards  at  the  east. 

A  dozen  foundries  cast  improvised  machinery,  some 
of  huge  dimensions,  for  the  Nevada  mines  and  for  Cali- 
fornia irrigation  works ;  the  cable-car  clutch  was  invented  by 


202  RETROSPECTION 

Mr.    Hallidie,    of   the   Mechanics'    Institute,    and   put   in 
operation  over  Clay  street  hill. 

The  lumber  interests  assumed  large  proportions;  lead 
and  leather  wosrks  and  planing  and  paper  mills  were 
established.  Then  besides  shipbuilding  there  were  cooper- 
age, box-making,  with  furniture,  piano,  billiard-table,  to- 
bacco, sugar,  and  other  factories;  also  chemical  works, 
powder  works,  and  breweries. 

Agriculture  and  Horticulture  assumed  larger  propor- 
tions. Grain  and  gold  increased  in  production;  canneries 
and  creameries  were  established;  and  for  the  extensive 
sugar  refineries  a  large  acreage  was  devoted  to  sugar  beets. 

Labor  was  free;  laborers  were  here  in  plenty;  they 
were  satisfied  with  a  reasonable  wage,  and  a  thousand 
new  industries  was  the  result.  All  was  life  and  activity, 
public  cleanliness  and  decency  prevailed,  and  with  good 
government  and  economic  expenditures,  wealth  and  prog- 
ress appeared  on  every  side. 

With  the  large  acreage  devoted  to  grain,  clipper  ships 
bringing  goods  from  the  east  now  no  longer  returned  in 
ballast,  but,  on  the  contrary,  many  came  out  empty  to  load 
with  wheat  for  Liverpool.  The  fruit  industry  arose  with 
flattering  prospects,  led  by  Mr.  Hatch  of  Solano,  pros- 
pects too  flattering  when  joined  with  inexperience.  The 
decline  which  followed  from  ignorance  and  the  dishonesty 
of  agents  was  but  temporary,  after  which  the  industry 
rose  to  higher  proportions  than  ever. 

Mr.  Hatch  was  a  fine  specimen  of  a  California  fruit- 
grower, intelligent,  genial,  honest  and  direct  in  his  deal- 
ings; sanguine  yet  sincere,  and  an  enthusiast  in  his  occu- 
pation. His  methods  were  peculiar;  under  conditions 
then  existing  they  were  sound,  and  but  for  the  temporary 
decline  in  the  industry  he  would  have  made  himself  rich. 
His  way  was  in  this  wise.  Seeing  a  tract  of  land  suited  to 
his  purpose  he  would  address  the  owner. 

"How  much  for  your  farm?" 

"Forty  thousand  dollars." 


THE  INTERREGNUM  203 

"I  will  give  3rou  forty-five  thousand,  with  interest  at 
eight  per  cent.,  payable  in  five  years,  no  payment  down, 
but  with  the  agreement  to  plant  it  in  fruit  trees,  and  keep 
them  in  proper  state  of  cultivation,  which  will  at  once  be 
ample  security,  and  double  the  value  of  the  land  for  the 
benefit  of  to  whomsoever  it  may  revert,  at  the  expiration 
of  the  five  years." 

On  these  terms,  which  seemed  safe  for  all  concerned, 
for  prices  of  fruit  then  were  high,  Mr  Hatch  borrowed 
from  the  banks  and  planted  extensively,  but  was  finally 
caught  in  the  financial  distress  which  followed  the  advent 
of  the  railroad  and  came  to  grief. 

Water  and  gas  were  introduced  in  the  larger  towns, 
and  fire  companies  organized.  Schools  and  churches  every- 
where abounded,  while  the  masons,  oddfellows,  and  other 
benevolent  societies  were  well  in  evidence.  California  pro- 
ceeded to  array  herself  in  all  the  frills  and  furbelows  of 
civilization.  Wages  were  fair,  and  in  a  cool,  equable 
climate,  with  cheap  food  and  house-rent,  and  free  schools, 
the  severe  drudgery  being  relegated  to  Asiatics  while 
skilled  labor  was  reserved  for  Europeans,  the  social  and 
domestic  conditions  of  the  laborer  were  better  than  ever 
before  in  any  country. 

The  birth  and  booming  of  towns  continued,  and  ex- 
tended over  a  wide  area.  Like  rushes  for  new  gold  dig- 
gings in  the  mountains,  so  with  regard  to  town-making; 
excitements  arose,  declined,  and  broke  out  again,  lots  being 
surveyed  and  mapped  sometimes  for  ten  miles  around  the 
centre  of  the  town. 

With  the  rest,  on  the  other  side  of  the  shield  we  may 
see  pictured  another  of  those  wild  excitements  attending 
the  occupation  of  the  west.  Companies  were  organized 
and  stock  certificates  issued  to  represent  the  gold-quartz 
crushers  of  Grass  Valley  and  the  silver  mines  of  Nevada, 
some  of  them  good,  many  of  them  worthless. 

With  a  fine  rage  which  kept  roaring  in  San  Francisco 


204  RETROSPECTION 

two  boards  of  brokers  brought  to  their  ruin  thousands,  all 
classes  falling  to  the  fascination.  As  in  the  time  of  the 
Mississippi  bubble,  or  of  the  Scots  Darien  colony,  rich  men 
and  poor  alike,  banker  and  hod-carrier,  women  and  clergy- 
men, all  were  seized  with  the  infatuation  to  become  sud- 
denly rich. 

Along  the  crest  of  the  Comstock  lode  the  land  was 
measured  off  in  feet,  and  the  front  foot  became  the  finan- 
cial unit.  A  foot  was  valued  at  ten  dollars  or  ten  thou- 
sand. The  owner  of  a  few  feet,  where  the  dividend  was 
for  a  few  months  large  and  regular,  was  as  appeared  to 
him  at  the  time  rich  for  life,  or  as  appeared  in  the  end 
rich  until  the  collapse  came. 

Of  the  wild  speculative  days  of  the  Comstock  mines 
which  made  wealthy  a  few  sharp  operators,  as  Lucky 
Baldwin,  Keene,  J.  D.  Fry,  Flood  and  O'Brien,  Mackay 
and  Fair,  while  reducing  thousands  to  poverty,  was  Will- 
iam C.  Ralston,  who  came  to  California  in  the  service  of 
the  Garrison  line  of  steamers  via  Nicaragua.  As  one  of 
the  banking  firm  of  Garrison  Morgan  Fretz  and  Ralston 
he  became  acquainted  with  D.  0.  Mills,  then  a  modest 
banker  of  Sacramento. 

With  Mills  he  founded  the  Bank  of  California,  of 
which  he  was  at  first  cashier  while  Mills  was  president, 
later  becoming  president  and  dominator.  Ralston  ad- 
vanced rapidly;  he  was  essentially  a  product  of  California 
and  of  the  time.  A  young  man  with  the  bluff  hearty  man- 
ners and  assurance  of  middle  age,  he  became  popular.  On 
assuming  the  presidency  of  the  bank  he  set  up  a  spacious 
residence  at  Belmont,  and  drove  daily  to  and  from  the 
bank,  some  twenty  miles  or  more.  He  entertained  lavishly, 
inviting  almost  every  distinguished  visitor  to  San  Fran- 
cisco to  spend  a  day  or  more  at  Belmont,  until  his  name 
became  known  in  all  the  great  centres  of  finance  for  his 
business  resources  and  ability  no  less  than  for  his  hos- 
pitality. Many  persons,  young  and  old,  by  his  counsel 
or  assistance  were  saved  from  ruin. 


THE   INTERREGNUM  205 

For  a  time  he  was  the  most  conspicuous  personage  on 
the  Pacific  coast.  Rapidly  unfolding  under  the  shining 
heaps  of  gold  and  silver  in  his  vaults,  in  due  time  he  came 
to  regard  himself  the  king  of  commerce,  supreme  in  busi- 
ness, invincible  in  financial  affairs.  His  power  and  pride 
made  jealous  the  gods,  and  with  all  his  broad  experience 
and  keen  penetration  he  could  not  see  into  the  bowels  cf 
the  Sierra,  could  not  see  the  silver  bonanza  the  saloon 
men,  Flood  and  O'Brien,  kept  hidden  from  public  view 
in  the  Consolidated  Virginia  mine,  of  which  they  then 
held  control.  So  when  Ralston  sold  short  he  was  allowed  to 
pledge  himself  to  deliver  more  stock  than  was  ever  issued. 

In  the  bank  at  a  meeting  of  his  directors  he  was  asked 
to  retire,  which  he  did,  seating  himself  at  his  desk  in  the 
president's  office.  Presently  Mr.  Mills  appeared  and 
asked  him  to  resign.  Without  a  word  Ralston  took  up  a 
pen  and  wrote  his  resignation  as  president  of  the  bank. 
Mills  withdrew.  Ralston  arose,  and  taking  his  hat  walked 
over  to  North  beach,  where  he  was  accustomed  to  bathe 
in  the  Bay.  He  was  an  expert  swimmer,  and  his  long 
vigorous  strokes  soon  carried  him  well  away  from  the 
shore.  Presently  two  boatmen  on  the  beach  noticing  a 
strange  struggle  going  on  in  the  water  some  distance 
away  put  out  in  their  boat.  Ralston  was  past  recovery 
when  they  reached  him.  His  life  insurance  of  $100,000 
was  paid,  the  companies  not  caring  to  bring  up  the  question 
of  suicide  under  the  existing  excitement. 

Ralston 's  defalcation  amounted  to  several  millions; 
the  bank  was  completely  wrecked,  as  Mr.  Mills  informed 
me,  and  had  to  be  capitalized  anew,  the  business  and  con- 
nections being  too  valuable  to  be  sacrificed.  Mr.  Mills' 
loss  was  $700,000;  Mr.  Baldwin's,  including  stock  and  de- 
posits, was  twice  that  amount. 

Lesson  to  young  men — and  old  ones:  When  you  have 
all  the  world  can  give,  don't  stake  it  for  something  more. 

The  civil  war  which  fell  so  heavily  upon  the  patriots 


206  RETROSPECTION 

of  the  east  proved  a  pecuniary  advantage  to  the  gold-bear- 
ing states  of  the  Pacific.  It  was  a  period  of  enforced  pros- 
perity, so  far  as  the  war  was  concerned,  for  the  people  of 
the  west  coast  were  loyal  to  the  union,  and  would  have 
touched  no  money  made  at  the  expense  of  the  cause. 

As  it  happened,  that  which  brought  profit  to  California 
was  not  only  of  the  greatest  advantage,  but  was  of  vital 
consequence  to  the  union  cause.  For  as  the  financial  affairs 
of  the  government  declined,  and  the  life  or  death  struggle 
grew  fiercer,  the  monarchies  of  Europe  meanwhile  watch- 
ing for  some  excuse  to  interfere,  watching  with  unholy 
desire  to  recognize  the  rebellion  and  break  into  fragments 
the  American  republic,  the  steady  arrival  at  New  York 
from  San  Francisco  of  two  or  three  millions  in  gold  two  or 
three  times  a  month,  as  elsewhere  in  this  Retrospection 
explained,  held  in  check  the  inflated  greenback  currency 
and  saved  the  credit  of  the  nation ;  for  while  the  premium 
on  gold  at  one  time  in  New  York  approached  300,  at  Rich- 
mond confederate  currency  fluttered  toward  3000, — that 
is  to  say,  it  became  worthless,  and  the  confederation  bank- 
rupt. So  that  if  with  this  regular  inflow  of  gold  the  prob- 
able success  of  the  union  cause  fell  so  low  in  the  sensitive 
minds  of  the  financiers  of  New  York  and  London  as  in- 
dicated by  the  value  they  placed  upon  United  States' 
promises  to  pay,  where  would  have  been  the  cause,  the 
credit  of  the  nation,  and  its  power  to  raise  money  for 
carrying  on  the  war  without  this  California  gold? 

The  loyalty  of  California  to  the  union  cause,  from  first 
to  last,  was  manifested  in  various  ways.  Companies  were 
enlisted  for  the  war,  but  greatly  to  the  disappointment 
of  the  men  they  were  held  in  reserve  on  the  Pacific  side, 
some  in  California  and  some  in  Arizona,  owing  to  threat- 
ened outbreak  among  the  Indians,  and  the  appearance  in 
Pacific  waters  of  the  confederate  cruiser  Alabama,  playing 
havoc  with  defenseless  shipping.  Nevertheless  some  union 
men,  and  many  more  secessionists,  found  their  way  east 
and  joined  their  respective  armies.  Patriotic  meetings 


THE   INTERREGNUM  207 

were  held  throughout  the  state  and  large  sums  raised  for 
the  sanitary  commission. 

Doctor  Scott,  pastor  of  Calvary  church,  was  from  New 
Orleans,  and  a  secessionist.  He  displayed  his  sentiments 
cautiously  at  first,  merely  changing  the  form  in  his  usual 
Sunday  morning  prayer  from  a  blessing  on  "the  president 
of  the  United  States"  to  a  blessing  on  "the  presidents  of 
these  American  states."  San  Francisco  was  in  no  humor 
to  hear  prayers  put  up  in  the  pulpit  for  Lincoln  and 
Davis  jointly;  so  the  next  Sunday  found  the  pews  filled 
with  strangers,  some  of  whom  were  rather  rough  in  ap- 
pearance. The  revised  formula  did  not  appear  in  the 
morning  invocation,  and  no  word  was  spoken  relative  to 
the  war  in  the  sermon.  After  service  the  doctor  was 
somewhat  severely  hustled  into  his  carriage  by  a  crowd 
collected  about  the  door,  but  no  other  violence  was  offered. 
The  next  departing  steamer  had  on  board  Doctor  Scott 
and  his  family  bound  for  Europe. 

When  the  news  of  Lincoln's  death  reached  San  Fran- 
cisco, a  man  on  the  street  was  heard  to  mutter,  ' '  I  am  glad 
of  it."  Instantly  he  doubled  himself  up  and  dropped; 
such  was  the  temper  of  the  time. 

The  good  fortune  growing  out  of  the  war  which  befell 
California  without  will  or  effort  of  her  own  laid  the 
foundation  of  many  moderate  fortunes,  some  of  which 
remain  to  this  day. 

In  the  California  legislature  was  passed  what  was 
called  the  specific  contract  law;  that  is  to  say,  contracts 
might  be  made  wherein  the  consideration  or  kind  of  pay- 
ment was  specified,  it  might  be  in  lumber,  or  wheat,  or 
gold.  Commercial  paper,  notes,  bonds,  all  obligations 
not  upon  a  greenback  basis  were  specified  payable  in  gold 
coin  of  the  United  States.  For  this  no  question  was  raised 
as  to  any  intention  of  repudiating  the  lawful  currency  of 
the  government,  for  the  loyalty  of  California  to  the  union 
was  already  established. 

The  people  of  California,  and  of  the  whole  Pacific  sea- 


208  RETROSPECTION 

board  for  that  matter,  never  fancied  the  handling  of  paper 
money,  and  to  some  extent  the  prejudice  exists  to  this 
day.  Before  the  war  there  were  afloat  at  the  east  loads 
of  bills  of  countless  banks  fluctuating  daily  in  value  from 
one  hundred  per  cent,  down  to  nothing,  and  our  people 
would  have  none  of  them. 

Gold  was  a  product  of  the  country;  merchants  sold 
their  goods  for  gold,  and  bankers  kept  their  accounts  upon 
a  gold  basis.  For  each  of  the  thousand  minor  transac- 
tions of  the  day  there  were  of  course  no  written  specific 
contracts,  but  in  everything  bought  and  sold  on  a  gold 
basis  there  was  an  implied  contract  as  to  terms  of  pay- 
ment. Thus  the  business  of  this  entire  country  for  a  num- 
ber of  years  amounting  to  half  of  the  period  of  this  Inter- 
regnum was  done  upon  honor.  The  debtor  could  at  any 
moment  liquidate  his  obligation,  whether  of  five  dollars 
or  of  fifty  thousand,  in  legal  tender  notes,  that  is  to  say, 
lawful  currency  of  the  United  States,  whose  validity  none 
could  dispute ;  but  to  do  so  brought  dishonor,  disgrace,  and 
loss  of  credit,  considerations  often  more  powerful  than  any 
embodied  in  the  written  law. 

Thus  lay  transformed  this  city  of  San  Francisco,  from 
an  expanse  of  rolling  dunes  between  sea  and  bay,  from  a 
tented  encampment  and  edifices  of  brush  and  boards,  to  a 
city  of  streets  and  houses  unapproached  by  any  of  similar 
age  for  size  and  substantial  construction;  'from  a  com- 
munity of  revelling  adventurers  to  one  of  high  average 
respectability  and  intelligence.  A  choice  selection  of  man- 
hood from  all  parts  of  the  globe  was  here  congregated, 
with  ability  and  enterprise  both  well  and  ill  directed.  As 
devastating  fires  had  weeded  the  architectural  parts  of 
the  frail  and  unseemly,  so  vigilance  movements,  assisted 
by  gold-rushes  and  filibuster  schemes,  had  purified  society 
of  its  worst  elements,  and  were  now  raising  the  city  to 
a  model  for  order  and  municipal  administration. 

The   whilom    effervescent   hamlet    now   stood    the    ac- 


THE   INTERREGNUM  209 

knowledged  metropolis  of  the  Pacific,  after  a  brief  struggle 
with  threatening  vicissitudes,  while  the  tributary  country 
had  developed  from  the  mining  field  with  flitting  camps 
to  a  substantial  state,  with  a  steady  mining  industry,  and 
fast  unfolding  agricultural  and  manufacturing  interests, 
which  promised  to  rival  if  not  to  eclipse  the  foremost 
sections  of  the  union. 

Thus  had  been  surpassed  the  wildest  dreams  which  had 
incited  the  coming  of  the  gold-seekers,  and  the  founding  of 
empire  out  of  the  manifold  resources  which  one  after  an- 
other unfolded  before  the  unexpectant  eyes  of  these 
builders  of  a  new  commonwealth.  A  series  of  surprises 
marked  the  advance  of  the  state  as  well  as  of  the  city,  the 
one  a  wilderness  bursting  with  bloom,  the  other  a  mart  of 
progress  purified  by  many  fiery  ordeals. 


CHAPTER   XII 

EVOLUTION    OF    HIGH    CRIME 

SEVERAL  causes  united,  about  the  middle  of  the  cen- 
tury, to  lower  the  standard  of  public  morality  in  the 
United  States.  Hitherto  business  had  pursued  its  even 
way  along  lines  accredited  in  the  great  marts  of  commerce 
throughout  the  world,  wilful  deviation  from  which,  for 
illicit  ends,  was  sure  to  result  in  disgrace  and  ruin. 
Moderation  was  a  virtue;  excess  in  any  direction  was  re- 
garded as  a  deflection  from  the  right  path. 

Ships  made  their  voyages  about  the  world,  trading, 
and  as  a  rule  securing  a  fair  return,  with  now  and  then 
a  more  fortunate  venture,  but  all  in  a  legitimate  way.  Un- 
fair dealings  were  regarded  as  piratical.  So  on  shore,  the 
lines  of  commercial  and  political  rectitude  were  clearly 
marked,  and  there  were  likewise  but  few  land  pirates  in 
those  days. 

Some  fortunes  were  made  in  furs,  or  what  were  deemed 
fortunes,  fifty  or  a  hundred  thousand  dollars;  American 
millionaires,  rare  enough  specimens  in  those  days,  were 
gods  of  finance,  like  the  Rothschilds,  and  could  be  counted 
on  one's  fingers.  There  were  some  large  deals  in  land, 
but  where  government  had  so  much  to  give  away  there  was 
little  chance  for  excessive  profits. 

Certain  bankers  made  fortunes,  and  a  few  mercantile 
houses  rose  to  distinction;  but  the  progress  of  the  nation 
toward  wealth  was  so  gradual,  and  its  distribution  among 
the  people  so  uniform,  that  it  all  came  as  expected  bless- 
ings not  to  be  specially  regarded. 

The  merchants  and  bankers  of  the  earlier  epoch  were 

210 


EVOLUTION    OF    HIGH    CRIME  211 

men  of  uprightness  of  character  and  with  a  keen  sense  of 
moral  cleanliness  and  business  honor,  a  lively  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  the  community,  ever  recognizing  their 
neighbors'  rights  while  themselves  setting  an  example  of 
good  citizenship.  Such  men  were  Stephen  Girard,  George 
Peabody,  and  others  of  that  class,  who  would  no  more 
think  of  wrongfully  crushing  a  competitor  or  bribing  an 
official  than  they  would  think  of  committing  murder. 
Capital  in  the  hands  of  such  is  sterilized  to  evil  ways. 

Gradually  and  imperceptibly  speculation  crept  in,  that 
insidious  foe  to  commercial  rectitude  and  personal  in- 
tegrity. Opportunities  for  various  indulgencies  came  with 
the  Mexican  war,  an  event  which  sent  waves  of  disgust 
throughout  the  land.  It  was  well  known  at  the  time,  and 
fully  proved  later,  that  the  larger  part  of  the  demands 
made  by  citizens  of  the  United  States  upon  Mexico  were 
fraudulent,  trumped  up  against  a  people  weakened  by 
internal  strife,  and  with  whom  'we  had  no  quarrel  or  cause 
of  quarrel. 

It  is  well  known  that  these  claims  were  invented  by 
southern  fire-eaters  and  slaveholders,  with  the  president  of 
the  United  States  at  their  head,  for  the  predetermined  pur- 
pose of  inciting  war  and  acquiring  more  slave  territory. 

James  K.  Polk  and  his  Mexican  war,  the  man  inhumane 
and  void  of  integrity,  the  measure  an  injustice  practised 
upon  a  weaker  neighbor. 

The  man,  this  president  of  1845,  was  a  champion  of 
African  enslavement,  and  slavery  is  debasing.  War  is 
demoralizing;  an  unjust  war  with  a  veneer  of  enthusiasm 
is  a  prostitution  of  patriotism.  Already  Texas  had  been 
brought  forward  with  soil  and  area  sufficient  for  breeding 
and  working  ten  millions  of  black  men;  the  California 
country,  if  it  could  be  secured  for  slavery,  might  serve  for 
another  ten  millions.  Heads  of  government  occupied  in 
such  issues,  and  holding  them  ever  before  the  people  as  vital 
to  their  interests  exercised  a  baneful  influence  upon  the 
conscience  of  the  nation. 


212  RETROSPECTION 

Then  came  on  that  other  war,  the  war  for  the  union. 
If  ever  there  was  a  cause  demanding  a  cardinal  sacrifice, 
even  to  the  mutual  butchering  of  a  million  noble  young 
men  of  kindred  race  and  aspirations,  this  was  one,  the  issue 
meaning  life  or  death  to  the  Republic.  Yet  human  hyenas 
came  forward  from  the  sinks  of  iniquity  to  prey  upon  the 
struggling  nation,  renegade  northerners  entering  into  con- 
spiracy with  renegade  southerners  to  cheat  the  soldiers 
that  stood  forth  doomed  to  die  for  their  country,  to  cheat 
them  out  of  the  poor  remnants  of  comfort  which  might  be 
left  to  them  for  their  few  remaining  days. 

The  presidents  following  Mr.  Polk  were  not  inspiring 
factors  as  leaders  of  the  nation,  and  the  civil  war  brought 
with  it  a  multitude  of  evils.  Politicians  turned  their  at- 
tention to  business  and  became  experts  in  rascality.  It 
was  then  that  Big  Business  learned  to  swear  off  its  taxes, 
beat  the  customs,  bamboozle  society,  and  properly  handle 
weights  and  measures  in  dealing  with  the  government.  In 
the  marts  of  commerce  the  hearts  of  the  great  money- 
makers hardened,  and  merchants  became  lax  in  their  deal- 
ings. An  army  made  barefoot  by  shoddy  shoes,  or  ill  from 
infected  food;  a  thousand  men  sent  to  their  death  at  sea 
from  a  rotten  hulk  made  small  impression  upon  their  moral 
sense  or  sympathies. 

Thus  the  old-time  kindred  feeling,  which  in  the  heart 
of  the  earlier  Americans  was  an  obsession,  became  cold  like 
the  metal  for  which  every  one  was  now  reaching  out 
avaricious  hands. 

It  is  not  therefore  without  reason  that  we  place  in  the 
midst  of  these  mid-century  wars  and  their  attendant  issues 
the  advent  of  high  crime,  by  which  term  is  meant  that 
sort  of  wrong  doing  for  which  persons  of  wealth  and  in- 
fluence hold  themselves  immune,  not  expecting  or  deserv- 
ing punishment  for  crimes  for  which  the  poor  should  justly 
suffer  for  example's  sake. 

Such  assumption,  which  is  claimed  on  the  ground  that 
the  prosecution  and  punishment  of  this  class  of  citizens 


EVOLUTION    OF    HIGH    CRIME  213 

disturbs  capital  and  interferes  with  business,  is  to  say  the 
least  the  height  of  egotism  and  impudence,  an  insult  to 
common-sense  and  an  outrage  on  common  decency  too  pal- 
pable to  discuss. 

It  is  a  strange  thing,  strange  that  man,  made  upright, 
endowed  as  he  supposes  with  immortality,  given  every- 
thing, given  all  that  Satan  offered  to  Christ,  it  is  strange 
that  he  should  go  on  forever  seeking  out  so  many  inven- 
tions. 

Let  us  pause  and  consider  for  a  moment  who  and  what 
we  are,  as  we  stand  here  to-day  with  high  crime  still  raging 
around  us,  threatening  destruction. 

Consider  the  position  of  the  United  States  in  the  world 
of  humanity.  We  are  a  part  of  the  foremost  civilization, 
one  with  the  greatest  of  nations.  We  have  at  our  disposal  all 
the  blessings  of  life  and  liberty ;  there  is  not  and  never  has 
been  a  people  more  highly  favored  by  nature  and  develop- 
ment. We  owe  allegiance  to  neither  prince  nor  potentate; 
the  shams  and  hallucinations  of  kingship  do  not  reach  us; 
our  minds  are  free  from  any  doctrine  of  divine  rulership. 

We  are  subject  to  no  religious  tyranny;  we  are  over- 
whelmed by  no  great  superstition;  we  are  not  forced  to 
bow  down  to  Baal  or  kneel  with  our  master  in  the  house 
of  Rimmon.  Blessed  with  all  the  benefits  and  privileges  of 
self-government,  we  are  an  absolutely  free  people,  free  to 
think  and  speak  and  act  according  to  the  dictates  of  our 
own  will  and  conscience,  restraining  ourselves  only  from 
injury  to  others;  rendering  account  only  to  ourselves,  to 
our  better  selves,  the  divine  force  in  the  hearts  and  minds 
of  all  the  people. 

We  are  held  by  no  dictatorship  for  enforced  military 
service  in  time  of  peace,  while  war  is  rapidly  approaching 
the  impossible ;  we  are  taxed  to  support  neither  church  nor 
clergy,  neither  a  great  standing  army  nor  an  inoperative 
navy,  neither  an  idle  aristocracy  nor  a  family  of  royal 
drones  swarming  with  a  worthless  progeny. 
8 


214  RETROSPECTION 

What  civilization  and  human  progress  have  stood  for, 
what  men  for  these  thousands  of  years  have  been  fighting 
for,  they  have  freely  given  us  and  fully  assured  to  our 
children.  Free  schools,  colleges,  universities,  and  all  sorts 
of  educational  institutions  are  established  in  every  city 
and  at  the  cross-roads,  while  public  and  private  moneys  are 
poured  out  like  water  for  the  further  enlightenment  of  the 
race. 

•  We  have  become  a  mighty  nation.  With  lands  un- 
limited we  have  thrown  open  our  doors  and  welcomed  all 
to  enter  and  participate  in  the  choicest  gifts  of  nature. 
We  have  subdued  the  wilderness,  cleared  away  the  forests, 
reclaimed  the  waste  places,  planted  corn  on  the  plains, 
covered  the  prairies  with  waving  grain  and  the  hills  with 
cattle;  we  have  watered  the  deserts  and  turned  them  into 
beautiful  gardens  and  fruitful  fields;  we  have  planted 
vineyards  and  made  wine,  planted  olives  and  made  food, 
grown  cotton  for  garments,  tobacco  for  comfort,  and  plants 
to  feed  the  little  weavers  of  silk. 

We  have  opened  the  veins  of  the  mountains  and  brought 
forth  precious  treasure,  gold  and  silver  and  iron,  copper 
and  coal;  we  have  tapped  the  lower  depths  and  set 
flowing  into  our  cisterns  oil  for  a  thousand  industries. 
Miracles  have  been  wrought  by  human  agency  or  divine 
interposition  for  the  well-being  and  progress  of  man. 

We  extract  mysterious  energies  from  the  forces  of 
nature  and  attach  them  to  the  car  of  progress.  We  harness 
the  lightning  to  the  plow  and  make  steam  to  serve  factories 
and  railways.  We  skim  the  earth  with  swift-running 
vehicles,  and  put  forth  wings  to  fly  in  the  air.  We  have 
cut  the  continent  with  a  canal  and  have  opened  land-ways 
and  waterways  for  many  thousands  of  miles.  We  have 
placed  upon  the  ocean  floating  palaces  for  travel,  and 
craft  of  every  kind  for  commerce.  We  have  taught  elec- 
tricity to  speak;  we  wire  the  lightning,  send  waves  of  in- 
telligence through  the  air  and  throw  the  human  voice  into 
dead  matter  there  to  remain  for  intercourse  with  generations 


EVOLUTION   OF   HIGH   CRIME  215 

yet  unborn.  Even  sickness  and  suffering  have  been  made 
to  yield  to  some  extent  to  hygiene  and  other  branches  of 
medical  science.  Consider  these  things  and  compare  our 
condition  with  that  of  humanity  a  thousand  years  ago,  a 
hundred  years  ago. 

In  many  of  the  paths  of  science,  invention,  and  the  solu- 
tion of  world  problems,  in  penetrating  the  mysteries  of 
the  universe  and  of  man,  more  progress  has  been  made 
during  the  past  century  than  in  all  the  eternity  of  time 
preceding  it. 

And  what  payment  have  we  to  make  for  these  gifts 
of  the  gods?  None.  What  return  is  demanded  of  us  for 
all  these  inestimable  blessings?  None  whatever.  We  are 
asked  only  to  be  true  to  ourselves  and  honest  with  our 
neighbor,  only  to  be  true  and  honest  with  our  goddess  Na- 
ture who,  has  so  liberally  bestrewn  our  path  with  benefac- 
tions. 4 

Also  to  be  content.  The  cravings  of  dissatisfaction,  of 
avarice  or  other  unholy  desire  is  a  poor  return  for  loving- 
kindness.  Were  there  under  heaven  such  a  state  as  human 
contentment,  one  would  think  that  this  itching  for  advan- 
tage, this  craze  for  power  should  find  an  end;  that  we 
should  be  satisfied.  When  we  have  all  that  earth  can 
give,  what  fools  to  sigh  for  more!  Nevertheless  we  are  so 
made,  fashioned  in  foolishness.  And  as  we  sigh  here  for 
the  unattainable  so  sighed  Lucifer  in  heaven;  archangel 
was  not  enough,  he  would  be  as  God.  Yet  to  be  content 
of  achievement  were  to  arrest  progress,  to  stop  the  wheels 
of  civilization.  Work  was  given  us  for  our  recreation,  and 
death  for  our  repose.  Well,  then  if  we  cannot  be  content, 
let  us  at  all  events  try  to  be  decent. 

Among  the  good  men  and  pure  women  that  constitute 
the  greater  part  of  our  people  are  some  whose  moral  sense 
has  been  perverted,  whose  ideals  of  honor  have  been  low- 
ered, and  whose  consciences  have  become  seared  by  strenu- 
ous effort  and  prosperity.  Unmindful  of  what  they  owe 


216  RETROSPECTION 

to  God  and  their  country,  indifferent  as  to  the  effect  of 
their  evil  ways  upon  others,  they  devote  their  lives  and 
sacrifice  their  souls  to  the  acquisition  of  wealth. 

They  establish  a  code  of  ethics  for  themselves,  set  up 
their  own  standards  of  right  and  wrong,  one  standard  for 
private  morality  and  another  for  public  morality,  one  for 
good  business  and  another  for  good  government.  They 
pride  themselves  in  the  fancied  possession  of  a  good  private 
character  while  indulging  in  crimes  against  the  public. 
They  spend  money  as  freely  to  promote  business  as  to 
bleed  the  public  treasury.  To  lie  in  business  is  business,  to 
lie  in  private  is  indecent ;  to  cheat  the  government  is  finance, 
to  cheat  at  cards  is  infamous. 

They  set  up  their  own  standards  of  crimes  and  punish- 
ment. They  unblushingly  promulgate  the  principle  of  in- 
equality before  the  law,  punishment  for  the  poor  but  none 
for  the  rich.  Great  crimes  for  the  promotion  of  prosperity 
are  lauded;  small  thefts  to  avert  starvation  are  sinful  and 
must  be  punished.  To  buy  a  stolen  watch,  knowing  it  to  have 
been  stolen,  is  vulgar  as  well  as  wicked ;  to  buy  a  franchise 
stolen  from  the  city  is  to  cheat  the  city  while  debauching 
a  public  official,  yet  the  bribed  alone  should  be  punished, 
as  the  briber  was  only  removing  an  obstacle  standing  in 
the  way  of  his  business. 

It  is  the  buying  of  stolen  goods,  this  bribery  of  officials, 
the  buyer  being  the  real  thief  meriting  the  severer  punish- 
ment. Worse  than  the  thief  himself,  for  he  makes  the 
thief;  worse  than  the  murderer  himself  for  he  hands  him 
the  dynamite  and  sets  him  on  to  kill.  Stolen  goods,  stolen 
from  your  city  or  your  state,  which  as  a  respectable  citizen 
you  should  faithfully  serve ;  stolen  from  your  fellow  citizens 
whose  patronage  adds  to  your  wealth ;  stolen  from  the  men 
who  make  you,  who  support  you;  stolen  from  your  friends 
who  trust  you, — the  act  of  a  dastard  indeed ! 

Yet  more,  you  poison  the  fountains  of  civic  purity  and 
corrupt  public  sentiment  until  it  stinks  with  dishonesty. 
With  your  money  and  influence  you  elect  base  men  to  office, 


EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME  217 

men  who  are  a  disgrace  and  a  degradation  to  the  munici- 
pality and  to  the  commonwealth,  men  whom  you  know  you 
can  buy,  whom  you  have  bought  beforehand,  district  at- 
torneys who  promise  not  to  prosecute  your  criminals,  a 
supreme  judge  who  is  sure  to  find  for  you  and  your  friends 
a  convenient  technicality  to  set  you  free. 

Time  was  when  the  American  father's  words  to  his  son 
were  words  of  wisdom;  be  honest,  be  diligent,  be  pure. 
Now  what  does  he  say  ?  "Be  alert,  watch  the  other  fellow, 
beat  him  down;  watch  your  chance  with  the  government, 
easy  old  cow  to  milk ;  watch  your  chance  for  doubling  your 
money,  never  mind  old-woman  talk." 

Thus  dishonored  himself  he  brings  up  his  sons  to  dis- 
honor; all  the  young  men  about  him  while  feeling  his 
evil  influence  are  taught  to  emulate  him  in  gaming  wealth, 
even  to  emulate  his  tricky  ways  and  receive  praise  therefor. 
Thus  are  young  men  taught  chicane  and  young  women 
made  to  look  leniently  on  fraudulent  processes,  lightly 
questioning  with  quiet  conscience  ways  which  bring  wealth. 

And  fathers  and  sons  and  servitors  walk  the  street 
but  they  walk  not  in  honor.  They  swell  with  apparent 
pride,  for  their  presence  means  money,  but  they  are  not 
proud.  They  throw  up  their  heads  among  clean  men,  but 
they  do  not  feel  clean.  With  brazen  face  and  craven  heart 
they  move  among  their  fellows  knowing  that  all  men  know 
them  for  what  they  are. 

Sad  it  is  to  see  the  gifts  of  providence  so  perverted ;  sad 
to  see  young  men  of  generous  impulse  taught  the  abhorrent 
doctrine  that  the  ways  to  success  are  by  devious  paths; 
saddest  of  all,  when  a  youth  of  honorable  instincts  first 
feels  a  father's  baseness. 

For  the  truth  stands  blazing  there,  plain  as  the  path- 
way to  hell,  that  young  men  are  brought  up  by  their 
fathers  to  a  course  of  infamy ;  that  they  have  provided  for 
them  an  unwritten  code  in  which  crimes  are  graded,  re- 
turns to  be  in  proportion  to  the  amount  involved  and  risk 
of  detection;  that  they  are  instructed  as  sound  business 


218  RETROSPECTION 

doctrine  that  to  steal  from  the  people  is  not  stealing,  that 
to  swindle  the  government  is  not  so  bad  as  to  swindle  a 
corporation,  that  to  swindle  a  corporation  is  not  so  bad  as 
to  swindle  a  private  individual,  and  that  to  swindle  an  in- 
dividual who  is  a  stranger,  or  a  poor  man,  is  not  so  bad 
as  to  swindle  a  partner,  or  brother,  or  father.  Whence 
comes  it  all,  this  terrible  American  defection,  nay  this  world 
wide  wickedness?  These  men  were  not  so  made  in  the  be- 
ginning ;  they  were  not  so  marred  in  a  day. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  the  Republic  the  scantier  bless- 
ings of  providence  were  more  fully  appreciated  than  by 
the  inflow  through  the  opened  flood-gates  later ;  we  were  not 
so  far  removed  from  slavery  then  as  now ;  we  held  in  more 
abhorrent  remembrance  the  grasping  King  John,  the 
prurient  Charles,  the  imbecile  George,  while  Valley  Forge 
and  Germantown  were  affairs  of  yesterday.  The  people 
thanked  God  every  day;  most  of  them  meant  it.  Most  of 
their  descendants  lived  virtuous  lives. 

Gradually  there  came  a  change.  "With  the  expansion 
of  territory  came  an  expansion  of  pride.  "We  strode  about 
Europe  boasting  of  what  we  had  done  and  were  going  to 
do.  We  took  from  Mexico  the  California  country;  we 
gathered  gold  and  scattered  it  abroad;  we  invited  all  the 
world  to  come  and  participate  in  our  good  fortune;  we 
would  lift  them  up,  surely  they  would  not  pull  us  down. 

But  they  did  pull  us  down.  They  pulled  us  down,  they 
and  our  own  native  greed,  until  our  foremost  men  became 
high-priests  of  criminality,  until  their  families  and  friends 
became  inoculated  of  evil.  Wealth  brings  power,  which  all 
covet.  Power  implies  distinction,  which  all  love;  hence 
the  longing  for  riches  even  though  accompanied  with  dis- 
honor. 

It  was  then  that  competitive  individualism  merged  into 
monopoly  and  aggregated  capital  seized  and  appropriated 
for  the  further  extension  of  its  power  all  the  natural  re- 
sources within  its  reach. 


EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME  219 

Development  of  crime  came  with  the  development  of 
wealth;  from  increased  hunger  for  wealth  came  laxity  of 
principles  and  recklessness  as  to  the  methods  of  obtaining 
it.  As  cupidity  increased  rectitude  became  strained,  and 
personal  dishonesty  followed  public  corruption.  Senti- 
ments of  sinister  import  were  freely  discussed  and  openly 
avowed,  and  social  ethics  tolerated  such  as  a  short  time 
before  would  have  been  deemed  little  less  than  diabolical. 
Equality  before  the  law,  for  which  principle  our  fore- 
fathers had  so  lately  fought,  was  openly  repudiated. 

Aliens  of  still  lower  grade  kept  coming  in  greater  num- 
bers with  each  succeeding  decade,  and  standards  of  morality 
continued  to  fall.  Avarice  increased  as  integrity  di- 
minished. Still  all  through  the  first  century  of  re- 
publican life  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States  were  honest,  conscientious,  and  patriotic.  It 
was  not  so  much  an  increase  of  crime  among  Americans, 
aside  from  aliens,  as  a  shifting  of  the  criminal  class,  a 
parting  of  the  ways,  some  sinking  into  the  depths,  others 
rising  to  the  surface.  Hence  high  crime  and  low  crime, 
the  most  powerful  criminal  class  by  far  being  at  the  top. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  phases  attending  human 
development  during  the  last  half  century  has  been  this 
evolution  of  high  crime.  Not  that  crime  in  high  places 
has  hitherto  been  uncommon,  or  that  it  has  not  too  often 
escaped  punishment,  but  that  now  for  the  first  time  we 
find  a  considerable  part  of  the  men  of  wealth  and  intelli- 
gence of  the  community  openly  advocating  the  punishment 
of  the  poor  for  crime,  but  not  the  punishment  of  the  rich. 
Search  the  sacred  books  of  all  nations  and  no  such  reversal 
of  the  commands  of  the  decalogue  can  be  found.  Nowhere 
do  we  hear  in  the  recitation  even  of  the  crudest  tenets,  the 
poor  shall  not  kill  or  steal,  but  only  the  rich.  And  of  a 
surety  we  know  that  no  government,  no  religion,  no  so- 
ciety could  for  a  moment  stand  secure  upon  such  a  founda- 
tion. It  is  incredible  that  sane  members  of  a  latter-day 


220  RETROSPECTION 

community  should  be  found  to  uphold  such  a  doctrine. 
Yet  we  know  that  such  a  doctrine  exists,  and  that  thousands 
give  it  their  assent,  tacitly  if  not  openly.  Why?  Why 
should  men  of  average  intelligence  and  some  modicum  of 
morality  submit  to  such  a  monstrous  sentiment? 

The  world  was  young  a  hundred  years  ago,  our  republi- 
can wrorld,  and  comparatively  pure.  The  words  which 
stood  for  patriotism,  integrity,  and  civic  purity  held  some 
significance  with  many,  while  for  that  which  we  now  call 
graft  no  word  had  yet  been  coined. 

Village  life  was  held  to  be  better  than  life  in  the  city 
where  centred  all  wickedness.  But  now  in  this  present 
year  of  our  glorious  development  we  find  in  almost  every 
town  and  county  masters  of  evil  forces,  promoters  of  evil 
schemes,  with  hearts  as  black  as  Burr's,  and  hands  as  foul 
as  Arnold 's,  who  every  day  murder  morality  and  sell  them- 
selves and  the  finer  sense  of  their  sons  and  daughters, — 
sell  themselves  and  their  country  for  gold. 

When  the  civil  war  came  there  was  yet  an  unsubdued 
space  intervening  between  the  two  frontiers,  which  was 
thought  to  be  worthless,  but  was  later  found  to  be  exceed- 
ingly fertile  in  bringing  forth  crops  of  millionaires,  cattle 
kings,  railroad  dictators,  forest  despots,  mining  lords,  and 
even  agricultural  barons.  The  vast  wealth  stored  up  by 
nature  under  bleak  and  barren  coverings  hungry  capital- 
ists seized  with  avidity.  Here  was  a  new  and  fertile  field 
in  which  to  swindle  the  government. 

More  especially  the  profession  of  high  crime  proper, 
as  it  exists  to-day,  began  with  this  war,  with  the  horde 
of  swindlers  who  sprang  forward  to  supply  the  army  with 
shoddy  clothes  and  rotten  food,  with  the  horde  of  con- 
tractors, lately  honest  dealers,  but  too  quickly  turned  ras- 
cals with  the  turn  of  the  times.  So  that  it  became  fash- 
ionable to  cheat,  even  to  giving  the  army  worthless  arms 
on  entering  battle  if  the  profit  were  enough. 

Building  railroads  with  government  subsidies  and  pri- 
vate subscriptions  afforded  too  fine  an  opportunity  to  rob 


EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME  221 

both  government  and  people  to  be  slighted.  Then  there 
were  land  frauds  and  water  frauds,  timber  oil  and  iron 
frauds,  and  a  hundred  others  where  the  wealthy  sought 
to  become  more  wealthy  by  illegally  combining  and  crush- 
ing the  poor.  In  the  matter  of  road-making,  school-houses, 
court-houses,  and  other  public  work  the  grossest  frauds 
are  even  at  this  day  perpetrated  by  eliminating  certain 
parts  of  the  work  or  substituting  poorer  material  than  that 
specified  in  the  contract,  all  under  the  eyes  of  the  stupid  or 
indifferent  public.  As  sings  the  poet  in  his  psalm  of  the 
slums, 

Lives  of  rich  men  oft  remind  us 
We  can  make  our  lives  like  swine. 

Since  high  crime  has  assumed  such  large  proportions 
among  a  class  of  wealthy  and  influential  men  hitherto 
deemed  honorable,  the  science  of  criminology  becomes  an 
interesting  study. 

Thus  we  find  the  criminal  class  transferred  from  the 
lower  to  the  upper  regions,  from  the  nethermost  to  the 
most  exalted  social  strata,  from  the  crowded  tenements  of 
the  filthiest  quarters  to  the  homes  of  the  wealthy  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  parks  and  along  the  spacious  boulevards. 

For  if  we  weigh  and  measure  fairly  this  criminal  class, 
estimating  it  as  well  by  the  magnitude  of  the  transactions 
as  by  the  numbers  engaged  and  the  demoralizing  effects 
upon  the  nation,  it  is  plain  that  the  honor  of  the  name  be- 
longs not  to  the  poor  and  lowly  who  steal  a  pittance  to 
escape  starvation,  nor  to  the  pickpockets  and  burglars  of 
the  city's  purlieus,  who  presently  find  their  way  to  the 
state  prison,  but  to  the  rich  and  prosperous  who  steal  their 
millions,  beggar  whole  communities,  appropriate  the  na- 
tion's resources,  illegally  combine  to  crush  competition, 
and  all  that  vast  horde  of  respectable  rapscallions  who 
never  see  prison- wall  or  feel  the  hangman's  halter.  New 
York's  Bowery  and  Chinatown  have  their  crime  school; 
what  have  New  York's  Wall  street  and  Fifth  avenue?  Is 


222  RETROSPECTION 

it  because  high  crime  in  the  United  States  does  not  need 
a  university  that  Mr.  Carnegie  has  founded  no  such  in- 
stitution at  Washington? 

In  this  fin  de  siecle  epidemic  of  high  crime  a  sort  of 
insanity  seized  the  money-makers.  The  high-crime  de- 
fender of  high  crime  does  not  regard  with  favor  crimes 
committed  against  himself;  he  does  not  like  it  if  the  clerk 
he  has  taught  to  steal  from  others  steals  from  him;  he 
raves  if  the  government  which  he  robs  with  impunity  will 
not  protect  him  from  robbery  by  others. 

In  aggressive  business  circles  the  civic  conscience  in  re- 
lation to  industrial  life  is  for  the  most  part  a  thing  of  the 
past.  When  we  ask  why  men  still  steal  from  the  govern- 
ment who  will  not  steal  from  each  other  what  sort  of 
answer  do  we  get  ? 

"Can't  you  see  the  difference?" 

"No." 

"Well  I  can." 

It  is  natural  for  some  men  to  take  whatever  they  want 
that  is  within  their  reach,  either  openly  by  strategy  or 
secretly  by  stealth.  One  way  may  be  as  criminal  as  the 
other,  but  the  punishment  is  not  the  same.  One  operator 
may  be  called  a  great  financier,  the  other  a  miserable  thief. 
Hence  the  wise  men  will  avoid  the  way  to  small  results 
with  large  penalties,  and  cling  to  the  way  to  great  results 
with  no  penalties.  The  system  has  been  many  times  tried, 
to  punish  the  poor  and  let  the  rich  go  free,  but  it  never 
would  work  for  any  length  of  time.  Feudalism  practised 
it  but  feudalism  faded  away.  Phoenicia,  Greece,  and  Rome 
tried  it  and  failed ;  the  Spanish  and  French  nobility  and 
the  English  Georges  attempted  it  but  had  to  give  it  up. 

Singular  that  men  of  such  ability  should  imagine  that 
they  can  usurp  the  prerogatives  of  the  American  people, 
thrust  aside  the  sons  of  those  who  fought  at  Bunker  hill 
and  Gettysburg,  and  while  running  their  railroads  run 
the  government  as  well.  Strange  that  they  cannot  better 


EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME  223 

read  the  signs  of  the  times  and  know  that  such  a  state  of 
things  can  no  longer  exist. 

High  crime  justice  like  high  crime  journalism  is  made 
to  fit  the  occasion.  Even  the  family  adopts  it,  serving  it 
up  for  breakfast,  associating  the  lessons  with  bible  readings 
and  family  prayers.  Yet  every  such  precept  of  that  father 
brings  upon  him  the  contempt  of  the  son  and  the  humilia- 
tion of  the  daughter. 

High  crime  carries  with  it  high  society,  and  both  carry 
wealth.  Without  wealth  the  high  criminal  and  the  high 
social  personage  would  be  low  indeed ;  hence  the  constant 
struggle  for  riches,  at  any  cost. 

Woman  plays  her  part  in  the  evolution  of  high  crime. 
There  is  no  one  woman  in  particular,  no  one  type  of  woman 
that  appears  conspicuous.  But  all  women,  or  any  woman 
who  smiles  on  rascality,  who  receives  in  her  house  persons 
of  tainted  reputation,  looks  with  lenient  eyes  on  ill-gotten 
gains,  or  aids  and  abets  crooked  ways,  in  so  far  as  she  thus 
lends  her  influence  to  criminality  is  criminal. 

It  is  a  test  of  feminine  fibre  that  few  of  the  gentler  sex 
will  meet,  for  wrong  is  uncertain  and  women  are  indulgent, 
which  only  intensifies  the  situation  and  makes  it  worse. 

Before  great  wealth  became  so  common  and  standards 
of  living  were  simpler  the  disadvantages  attending  wealth 
were  less,  and  the  attitude  of  woman  less  fictitious.  She 
did  right  because  it  was  right,  not  because  the  opposite 
course  would  be  disreputable.  Under  the  present  relations 
she  must  do  the  same,  that  is  if  she  would  retain  her  former 
high  standard  of  purity. 

The  development  of  our  country  may  be  distinctly 
marked  by  three  transformations  following  the  revolution- 
ary war,  the  civil  war,  and  the  dark  age  of  graft.  For  a 
period  after  independence  uprightness  grew  apace.  Good 
men  ruled,  for  the  most  part  wisely  and  well.  The  people 
were  intensely  patriotic,  and  fairly  philanthropic.  A 
moderate  immigration  of  a  somewhat  decent  class  increased 
rather  than  retarded  progress. 


224  RETROSPECTION 

Even  in  the  maelstrom  set  in  motion  by  the  evil  in- 
fluences of  the  civil  war,  intensified  by  economic  develop- 
ment incident  to  the  application  of  steam  and  electricity 
and  the  mad  rush  for  wealth  which  followed,  appears  the 
spirit  of  purification,  apart  from  which  the  social  structure 
of  a  people  cannot  long  exist.  Yet  for  a  time  vice  grew 
faster  than  virtue,  the  bloom  unfolding  from  the  caverns 
of  iniquity. 

From  yet  another  point  of  view  we  may  watch  the 
growth  of  the  monster.  Up  to  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury corporate  capital  was  largely  in  life  insurance,  in- 
creasing from  one  million  in  1843  to  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  millions  in  1867.  Wall  street  was  commercial 
rather  than  financial,  the  importation  of  dry  goods  occupy- 
ing the  more  substantial  firms. 

Losing  the  profitable  trade  of  the  south  through  the 
civil  war  the  Wall  street  merchants  took  to  exporting 
United  States  bonds,  of  which  were  put  out  in  six  years 
over  two  billions  of  dollars  worth.  Thus  these  merchants 
became  private  bankers  and  Wall  street  the  financial  centre 
of  the  nation.  The  advent  of  trusts  and  corporate  securi- 
ties date  from  1879,  and  the  Juggernaut  car  of  Standard 
Oil  wheeled  into  course  with  its  new  business  methods  and 
morals  to  the  debasement  of  commercial  honor  and  in- 
tegrity. 

Hitherto  railroad  bonds  were  in  bad  odor,  but  as  some 
portions  of  trunk  lines  were  taken  up,  double  tracked, 
and  improved,  values  increased,  trusts  were  formed,  com- 
peting lines  were  made  one  by  exchange  of  securities,  and 
the  railways  of  the  country  fell  into  the  hands  of  monop- 
olists. Then  followed  the  steel  trust,  corporate  mergers, 
and  the  life  insurance  frauds. 

After  the  war  a  period  of  unexampled  prosperity  set 
in.  Population  spread  out  over  the  rich  valley  of  the 
Mississippi  and  beyond.  New  states  were  organized,  and 
new  business  methods  devised. 

And  here  we  may  consider  a  little  further  who  and 


EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME  225 

what  we  are.  A  system  of  government  good  enough  for 
good  men  but  too  weak  for  the  vicious,  administered  by 
practised  politicians,  self-seeking  aliens  easily  bribed  by 
money  or  influence  and  always  hungry  for  office,  and  whose 
chief  concern  when  in  office  is  to  keep  themselves  there 
rather  than  attend  to  matters  affecting  the  welfare  of  the 
people,  the  rule  being  party  before  the  people,  the  people 
before  principle,  and  self  before  all. 

Behold  our  courts  of  law,  where  justice  may  sometimes 
be  hammered  out  at  no  small  cost  of  time  and  money  from 
iron  rule  and  stale  precedent — though  too  largely  courts 
of  injustice  where  only  the  poor  are  punished,  rich  crim- 
inals escaping  through  endless  webs  of  quirks  and  quibbles, 
all  manipulated  by  professionals  of  small  conscience  skilled 
in  legal  legerdemain;  judges  steeped  in  forms  and  conven- 
tionalities listening  to  evidence  with  one  ear  open  to  their 
own  interests  or  prejudices;  juries  of  stupid  mien  and 
wooden  personalities,  whose  sluggish  intellect  works  in 
grooves,  and  each  of  whom  finds  it  "always  his  luck  to 
get  on  a  jury  with  eleven  damned  fools. ' '  Since  this  sys- 
tem of  court  procedure  and  miscarriage  of  justice  has  con- 
tinued from  the  days  of  King  John  and  his  charter,  might 
we  not  now,  with  some  of  our  referendums  and  things 
secure  a  befitting  change? 

Judging  from  the  signs  of  the  times  it  is  a  question 
how  long  the  influence  of  the  better  class  of  the  community 
will  continue  to  predominate.  There  is  a  marked  tendency 
on  the  part  of  the  lovers  of  evil  to  degrade  society  and 
bring  the  community  down  to  their  level  while  the  aspirants 
for  something  better  strive  as  hard  to  improve  and  elevate. 

Many  of  the  leading  newspapers  joined  the  confederacy 
of  crime  because  of  the  profit.  In  a  burst  of  eloquent 
blackguardism,  one  of  these  refined  leaders  of  public  opin- 
ion exclaims  "Damn  morality,  give  us  prosperity!"  which 
quite  plainly  shows  the  quality  of  public  opinion  he  leads, 
or  is  led  by. 


226  RETROSPECTION 

As  to  the  attitude  and  influence  of  the  clergy  in  the 
repression  of  crime  in  high  places  too  much  cannot  be 
said  in  their  praise.  It  requires  nerve,  as  well  as  faith 
and  holiness,  to  say  to  one  who  liberally  supports  the  church 
and  devoutly  attends  its  sacred  ministrations,  as  Nathan 
said  to  David,  '  *  Thou  art  the  man ! ' '  Wherefore  we  are  in- 
clined to  regard  pityingly  a  weak-kneed  brother  so 
wretchedly  circumstanced. 

Like  so  many  others,  such  a  clergyman  fears  for  him- 
self. His  predatory  flock  is  strong ;  he  must  consider  his 
wife  and  little  ones,  for  he  is  human.  Willingly  he  de- 
nounces sin,  but  not  the  sinner.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  thing 
to  say,  but  the  truth  asserts  it,  that  in  the  great  conflict 
now  being  waged  between  public  righteousness  and  the 
sins  of  the  rich  the  church  is  not  always  on  the  side  of 
purity  and  good  morals. 

Religion  is  not  taken  seriously  by  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury ;  its  votaries  profess  with  their  lips  but  deny  by  their 
actions.  The  timid  preacher  of  the  word  too  often  shirks 
his  responsibilities. 

' '  The  pulpit  is  no  place  for  polities, ' '  saith  such  an  one. 
Where  then  is  the  place  for  politics?  Is  religion  so  unap- 
proachable a  thing  that  it  can  take  no  part  in  the  most  im- 
portant affairs  relating  to  mankind  that  you,  my  dear  man 
of  God,  should  relegate  the  question  of  government  to  the 
saloons  and  the  haunts  of  the  demagogues  ?  Surely  to  dis- 
cuss the  vital  issues  of  life  were  better  than  forever  to 
drone  over  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  repeat  prayers 
stereotyped  by  superstition  hundreds  of  years  ago.  But 
talk  is  idle.  Such  a  man  in  the  pulpit  feels  that  he  must 
preach  to  please  the  pews.  He  still  holds  his  place  among 
the  so-called  servants  of  Christ  who  should  be  found  in  the 
temple  casting  out  the  money  changers.  Not  a  word  of 
warning  or  rebuke,  not  a  word  which  might  offend  the  ear 
of  the  pious  grafter  who  passes  the  contribution  plate  and 
serves  at  the  holy  communion.  How,  then,  should  the 


EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME  227 

people  be  expected  to  take  seriously  such  a  church  since 
its  own  minister  does  not? 

Thus  we  see  how  some  clergymen  as  well  as  some  of 
the  men  who  are  in  trade,  the  facile  merchant  and  the 
bloodless  banker,  whose  customers  are  money  even  though 
they  be  not  men,  all  alike  swell  the  number  that  live  and 
flourish  by  high  crime.  Let  us  be  thankful  that  so  few 
of  our  spiritual  guides  are  of  this  stamp. 

Monopolists  of  such  a  sort  and  character  there  are  as 
the  franchise  manipulating  and  public-utilities  men  who 
take  the  people's  money  from  them,  forced  by  threats  of 
discrimination,  and  employ  it  to  grind  them  under  the  heel 
of  a  commercial  despotism  hitherto  unknown  in  the  annals 
of  trade;  or  of  one  who  says  "All  the  oil  is  mine,  the  oil 
gathered  by  beneficent  nature  through  countless  ages  in 
the  reservoirs  of  the  earth  for  the  use  of  all  born  upon 
the  earth  so  long  as  the  earth  shall  stand,  all,  all  is  mine, 
by  my  sharpened  faculties  I  swear  it,  I  swear  I  will  get  it, 
and  with  what  I  get  I  and  my  cohorts  shall  get  and  control 
yet  more,  even  the  very  souls  of  men."  Another  says 
practically  the  same  of  iron,  as  do  others  of  coal,  of  tinlber, 
of  the  falling  water,  of  food-yielding  products,  and  there 
is  one  clique  who  would  even  be  content  with  the  whole  of 
Alaska. 

But  though  finance,  philosophy,  and  religion  all  fail 
to  give  us  concrete  assurance  of  the  future,  yet  we  must 
not  lose  heart,  for  the  skies  are  at  this  moment  bright  with 
promise  in  the  form  of  redeemed  cities  and  regenerated 
states.  Even  the  country  towns,  once  innocent  of  evil 
but  later  grown  rank  in  corruption,  and  boastful  of  their 
big  bad  men,  their  bosses  and  their  rings,  like  any  of  the 
larger  cities  of  Sodom,  even  these  are  becoming  purged  of 
their  wickedness  and  their  evil  ones  made  afraid. 

In  so  far  as  a  system  of  legal  reform  is  perfected  and 
carried  forward  Utopia  indeed  has  come,  and  American 


228  RETROSPECTION 

cities  from  cesspools  of  corruption  may  become  the  clean 
dwelling-places  of  a  redeemed  race.  Under  it  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  people  should  not  have  the  sort  of  govern- 
men  they  want.  If  they  prefer  cleanliness  and  decency,  if 
they  abhor  the  curse  of  labor  leaders,  if  they  revolt  at  the 
discrimination  of  judges  and  prosecuting  attorneys  be- 
tween high  and  low  crime,  they  must  choose  their  leaders 
accordingly.  If  the  people  rule  they  will  get  exactly  what 
they  want  and  deserve,  be  it  good  or  bad. 

The  evolution  of  high  crime  is  arrested.  In  a  thousand 
municipalities  we  see  alight  the  lamps  of  transformation 
disclosing  new  birth  and  new  being.  The  fundamental 
forces  of  honesty  and  morality  which  alone  can  save  from 
anarchy  are  again  appearing  in  forms  attractive  to  the  eye 
and  hopeful  to  the  heart.  The  exploitation  of  national  re- 
sources for  individual  benefit  is  also  a  thing  of  the  past, 
and  the  time  will  come  when  individual  holdings  of  any 
sort  of  wealth  will  be  limited,  not  upon  socialistic  prin- 
ciples, but  from  the  evolution  of  common-sense. 

Meanwhile  let  us  use  a  little  more  discrimination  in 
choosing  our  chief  magistrate. 

The  rulers  of  nations  have  not  always  been  men  of  de- 
cency. From  the  days  of  those  divinely  appointed  over  a 
chosen  people,  who  mostly  did  that  which  was  evil  in  the 
sight  of  the  Lord,  all  through  the  lives  of  ancient  Asia 
and  modern  Europe,  whether  Pharaohs  of  Egypt  or  Caesars 
of  Rome,  or  of  later  times  called  William  or  Henry,  Charles 
Louis  or  Edward,  comparatively  few  decent  persons  can 
be  found  among  them. 

Strange  that  men  who  are  so  many  should  permit  rulers 
who  are  so  few  to  degrade  them,  to  grind  them  into  the 
dust;  strange  that  we,  citizens  of  this  high-grade  republic, 
with  all  our  learning  and  refinement,  with  all  our  wealth 
and  opportunity,  ever  seeking  the  best,  that  we  should  rest 
supinely  under  the  misrule  of  demagogues  and  the  spawn 
of  low  aliens. 

Even  for  our  president  we  rarely  choose  the  best  man, 


EVOLUTION  OF  HIGH  CRIME  229 

but  rather  the  fittest.  Fittest  for  what?  For  reconcilia- 
tion and  compromise. 

And  yet  so  strong  within  us  is  love  of  home  and  country 
that  we  would  prefer  our  worst  president  to  the  best 
European  monarch.  Better  than  to  return  to  the  super- 
stitions and  mummeries  of  kingcraft,  that  tax  labor  and 
pile  up  a  never-to-be-paid  national  debt  to  support  an 
idle  aristocracy  and  the  ever  increasing  relatives  of  royalty, 
we  would  return  to  the  realm  of  apedom  and  cease  calling 
ourselves  men. 

The  new  nationalism  promulgated  by  Theodore  Roose- 
velt carries  with  it  a  new  code  of  commercial  ethics,  a  new 
standard  for  civic  decency.  First  citizen  of  the  world, 
though  not  a  professional  reformer,  no  one  ever  equalled 
him  in  reforms;  though  not  a  professional  states  crafts- 
man, few  ever  excelled  him  in  the  management  of  public 
affairs. 

Three  great  revolutions  were  achieved  by  the  person- 
ality of  three  of  our  presidents:  by  George  Washington  a 
political  revolution,  by  Abraham  Lincoln  a  social  revolu- 
tion, by  Theodore  Roosevelt  a  moral  revolution.  Though 
our  country  still  remains  steeped  in  political  and  financial 
pollution,  the  work  of  Roosevelt,  the  reformer,  in  its  in- 
fluence encircles  the  earth,  and  is  as  lasting  as  time.  Do 
not  the  people  of  California  feel  the  effects  every  day, 
notably  in  late  victories  for  the  right  in  the  state  reforms 
by  Hiram  Johnson? 

Roosevelt  made  possible  the  work  of  Heney,  Heney  made 
possible  the  work  of  Johnson.  Roosevelt  made  possible 
a  grand  career  for  Taft,  but  Taft  lacked  the  penetration 
to  see  or  take  advantage  of  it. 

Probably  never  so  many  of  the  American  people  suf- 
fered so  great  a  disappointment  in  the  administration  of 
any  one  of  our  presidents  as  in  the  case  of  Mr.  Taft. 
Coming  immediately  after  Roosevelt,  with  all  his  promises 
to  his  predecessor  and  to  the  people  who  elected  him  fresh 
in  their  minds  and  hearts,  they  waited,  watching  for  a 


230  RETROSPECTION 

sign,  until  hope  died  within  them  as  they  saw  him  with 
his  ponderous  flesh  and  sickly  smile  sink  into  a  quagmire 
of  broken  promises  and  incompetency. 

His  narrowness  of  mind  was  seen  in  his  many  petty- 
prejudices,  and  his  lack  of  judgment  in  his  illogical  atti- 
tude in  regard  to  leading  questions,  and  the  persistent  in- 
fliction upon  the  government  of  persons  of  damaged  repu- 
tation which  cost  the  nation  much  time  and  money  to  keep 
fairly  whitewashed.  In  all  of  which  he  displayed  the  wil- 
fulness  and  petulance  of  a  child,  as  also  in  his  vetoes  like 
that  of  the  Arizona  statehood  bill,  in  which  he  displayed 
a  brutal  indifference  to  the  rights  and  wishes  of  a  free  and 
independent  people  acting  Avholly  within  their  rights. 

One  might  expect,  as  the  higher  circles  of  office-seeking 
are  approached,  to  see  less  of  that  insatiable  greed  for  office 
witnessed  on  lower  levels;  but  in  the  desire  to  rule  selfish- 
ness has  no  limit. 

Somewhat  significant  as  showing  the  ever  shifting 
centre  of  political  and  intellectual  development  is  the  fact 
that  not  until  Virginia  had  given  to  the  republic  seven 
presidents,  all  of  them  before  1850,  did  Ohio  come  for- 
ward with  her  six  presidents,  all  attaining  office  after 
1868.  North  Carolina  began  with  Andrew  Jackson,  who 
was  followed  from  his  state  by  James  K.  Polk  and  Andrew 
Johnson,  of  none  of  whom  are  we  particularly  proud,  the 
last  rather  than  the  first  being  physically  and  mentally  a 
typical  citizen  of  the  state.  In  politics  likewise  are  marked 
distinctions.  Low  officialism  in  the  south  is  liable  to  be 
always  dark,  while  the  policemen  and  pot-house  politicians 
of  the  northern  cities  smell  strongly  Celtic. 

Jackson's  instincts  were  forceful,  his  ethics  brutal, 
the  moral  sense  was  lacking;  as  we  should  expect,  he 
was  among  the  first  to  set  up  Mexican  claims  and  urge 
reprisals. 

Massachusetts  gave  only  the  two  Adamses,  and  New 
York  but  three  men,  the  last  alone  worth  counting;  and 
he  is  still  young  enough,  and  prophet  priest  and  king 


EVOLUTION    OP    HIGH    CRIME  231 

enough  to  accomplish  the  purposes  for  which  he  was 
created. 

As  to  the  relative  merits  of  our  presidents,  that  is  a 
question  upon  which  no  two  persons  will  agree.  We  all 
know  that  George  Washington  was  a  good  and  a  great 
man,  though  by  diligently  digging  some  few  peccadillos 
may  be  found  not  mentioned  by  the  admiring  biographer. 

The  Adamses  were  well  up  to  the  Boston  standard, 
which  surely  is  high  enough,  the  first  and  greatest  merit 
being  that  they  were  of  Boston.  Though  not  as  much 
talked  about  as  Jefferson,  Madison  and  Monroe  made  good 
presidents.  The  list  is  filled  in  with  a  pretty  poor  lot 
down  to  Lincoln,  whose  name  none  can  mention  except 
with  reverence.  Worst  of  all  next  to  Taft  was  Andrew 
Johnson.  Grant  was  a  good  fighter — when  he  had  the 
largest  army  and  the  most  money ;  but  the  greatest  soldier 
and  the  most  pathetic  figure  of  either  army  was  Robert  E. 
Lee,  whose  efficiency  and  sublime  courage  held  him  up  a 
hero  in  the  face  of  a  superior  force  and  under  the  most 
trying  disadvantages.  As  a  man,  naturally,  being  a  suc- 
cessful general,  Grant  had  been  greatly  overrated,  as  his 
career  both  before  and  after  the  war  fully  shows.  He  has 
yet  further  to  be  several  times  magnified  before  he  can 
properly  fill  the  empty  space  in  his  monument.  New 
Yorkers  themselves  admit  that  his  tomb  on  Riverside  drive 
is  somewhat  overwhelming  when  compared  with  like  trib- 
utes to  the  memory  of  Lincoln. 

As  to  the  rest  there  is  little  to  be  said,  least  of  all  as 
to  Hayes,  Arthur,  and  Taft,  but  the  time  will  come  if  in- 
deed it  is  not  already  here,  when  Theodore  Roosevelt  will 
be  named  the  greatest  and  best  of  all  our  chief  magis- 
trates next  after  Washington  and  Lincoln. 

The  south  and  east  have  given  forth  their  presidents, 
Carolina,  Virginia,  and  New  York;  also  the  mid-continent. 
Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois;  would  it  not  be  well  some- 
time to  try  the  Pacific  coast  from  the  new  crop  of  patriots 
that  is  coming  on? 


CHAPTER   XIII 

THE     DARK     AGE     OF     GRAFT 

period  of  our  west- American  history  from  1870 
to  1910,  that  is  to  say,  from  the  advent  of  Collis  P. 
Huntington  to  the  advent  of  Hiram  W.  Johnson,  will  ever 
remain  memorable  as  marking  a  thraldom  and  a  deliver- 
ance. For  the  first  time  in  our  brief  career  we  behold 
the  dethronement  of  American  manhood,  the  debauchery 
of  American  morals.  For  the  first  time  we  find  Americans 
afraid,  unnerved,  not  by  the  presence  of  a  foreign  foe,  but 
because  of  betrayal  by  their  own  people,  by  their  friends 
and  neighbors,  from  whom  they  expected  aid  and  good- 
fellowship  in  the  development  of  a  new  commonwealth 
along  the  old  lines  of  fidelity  and  integrity. 

All  was  hope  and  joy  in  anticipation  of  the  benefits  to 
accrue  from  the  completed  railway,  the  railway  which  had 
been  built  by  the  people,  for  the  people,  which  had  been 
built  with  the  people's  money  and  credit,  with  money 
given  by  the  people  of  the  west  and  credit  obtained  from 
the  government  through  their  representatives  at  Washing- 
ton. The  work  had  been  entrusted  to  ostensibly  reputable 
men  doing  business  in  Sacramento,  and  the  work  accom- 
plished, the  railway  was  now  to  bring  them  good  fortune 
and  nearer  relationship  with  all  the  world.  When  these 
Sacramento  men,  hitherto  in  very  moderate  circumstances, 
suddenly  became  rich,  the  people  knew  they  were  betrayed. 
Had  the  railway  men  simply  pocketed  the  people's  money, 
and  secured  to  themselves  individually  all  the  profits  and 
peculations  to  accrue  from  hasty  construction  as  a  war 
measure,  it  would  have  been  bad  enough.  No  wonder 

232 


THE   DARK   AGE    OF    GRAFT  233 

then  that  when  they  saw  their  old  associates  turn  traitors, 
and  found  themselves  tricked,  the  promised  advantages 
turned  to  ways  and  means  for  further  extortions,  they  be- 
came despondent. 

Iron  rules  were  made  by  the  now  exultant  railroad 
men;  the  merchants'  books  should  always  be  open  to  them; 
freight  rates  were  graded,  and  the  most  favored  shippers 
must  not  only  give  up  the  clipper-ship  and  the  steamer  by 
the  Isthmus  routes,  but  must  not  order  for  or  sell  goods 
to  any  who  did  not  give  their  entire  transportation  busi- 
ness to  the  railroad. 

Credits  at  the  east  were  curtailed,  owing  partly  to  the 
shortened  time  for  getting  goods  to  the  western  coast,  and 
partly  to  the  return  of  government  to  specie  payment. 
Intimidation  was  the  spirit  of  the  new  regime.  Those 
who  had  proved  obdurate  during  the  abject  efforts  of  the 
railroad  men  to  secure  favors  were  now  remembered,  and 
the  delinquent  towns  and  individuals  well  punished.  Con- 
temptuous treatment  became  a  mark  of  merit,  and  a  civil 
answer  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  from  a  servant  of  the 
monopoly. 

The  public  press  was  bribed  or  subsidized  so  far  as 
practicable;  such  journals  as  declined  to  sell  themselves 
were  if  possible  destroyed.  The  Sacramento  Union,  the 
ablest  and  most  influential  newspaper  on  the  coast,  was  for- 
bidden the  use  of  the  Central  Pacific  trains,  and  so  was 
ruined,  later  to  be  bought  for  a  song  by  an  agent  of  the 
octopus. 

The  whole  country  was  under  a  cloud.  Business  fell 
off;  manufactures  declined;  merchants  failed,  many  giv- 
ing up  further  effort  and  taking  their  departure.  Want 
came  to  the  working-man,  who  could  find  no  employment, 
even  at  a  low  wage,  his  family  often  lacking  food.  Posses- 
sion was  taken  by  the  railroad  men  of  the  courts  and  of 
the  government;  subservient  tools  were  placed  in  office, 
the  ablest  lawyers  were  employed  to  demonstrate  the  law- 
lessness of  law  before  facile  courts  of  law,  and  so  the  rail- 


234  RETROSPECTION 

road  soon  had  the  country  under  its  heel.  Values  fell; 
sales  of  reil-estate,  inflated  in  anticipation  of  an  advance, 
could  not  be  effected;  financial  distress  overspread  the 
land,  and  California  lapsed  into  a  state  of  humiliation  and 
despair. 

It  would  not  have  been  so  with  the  men  of  '56 ;  they 
would  have  found  some  way  out  of  it;  it  was  their  custom 
to  find  a  way  out  of  dilemmas.  The  men  who  made  Chicago 
would  have  found  a  way  out  of  it.  It  would  have  been 
wrong,  of  course,  to  tear  up  the  track  and  hang  the  big 
four,  however  great  the  temptation.  There  were  other 
ways  for  those  that  had  the  intelligence  and  nerve  to  em- 
ploy them. 

Thus  came  to  California  the  Dark  Age  of  Graft,  over 
the  Plains,  over  the  Great  Divide,  over  the  Desert  and  the 
Sierra,  by  the  Union  Pacific,  by  the  Central  Pacific,  before 
ever  the  word  of  accursed  distinction  was  invented,  or 
lessons  in  the  art  had  become  common  elsewhere.  To  the 
immaculate  four,  Huntington,  Hopkins,  Stanford,  and 
Crocker  belong  the  honor  of  its  introduction.  Where  these 
adepts  studied,  they  and  Satanus  only  know. 

A  rare  text-book  of  the  time  was  the  Credit  Mobilier 
of  Paris.  Fremont  and  his  alleged  Mariposa  mine  became 
entangled  there,  and  the  man  would  have  been  sent  to  the 
Bastile  as  a  royal  fraud  if  peradventure  that  edifice  had 
not  been  closed  for  repairs. 

Such  of  the  Credit  Mobilier  as  was  not  required  by 
M.  de  Lesseps  for  his  Panama  canal  scheme  the  Union 
Pacific  brought  to  America,  where  it  served  its  manager 
the  same  scurvy  trick  it  always  plays  upon  its  votaries, 
only  he  was  first  disgraced  and  then  killed  by  it, 
whereas  Fremont  could  not  be  killed  by  disgrace,  nor  yet 
the  immaculate  four. 

It  is  difficult  to  disgrace  a  man  with  forty  millions  in 
his  pocket,  even  though  the  millions  were  stolen,  and  the 
people  enslaved,  bound  in  fetters  forged  out  of  their  own 


THE  DARK  AGE  OF  GRAFT  235 

money;  even  though  the  millions  were  employed  in  elect- 
ing governors,  buying  legislatures,  bribing  senators,  and 
insulting  and  humiliating  citizens;  or  perhaps  in  erecting 
churches  and  hospitals  not  for  the  glory  of  God,  but  for 
their  own  glory,  and  as  a  sop  to  Cerberus;  in  founding  a 
college  wherein  young  people  may  forever  be  taught  to 
honor  infamy;  in  building  for  vulgar  display  a  Nob  hill 
palace,  which  brings  neither  honor  nor  comfort,  and  soon 
to  be  licked  up  by  charitable  flames;  in  buying  a  foreign 
title  for  an  adopted  daughter;  in  supplying  an  old  wife 
the  money  wherewith  to  buy  a  young  husband;  in  suits  at 
law,  employing  the  law  to  defeat  the  law,  electing  to 
office  men  pledged  to  defy  the  law  while  swearing  to 
execute  it,  all  interlarded  with  their  own  lives  and  per- 
juries such  as  would  put  Ananias  to  blush;  in  spiteful 
revenges  and  personal  brawls,  as  when  one  of  the  wives 
raised  high  her  spiritualistic  nose  at  another  of  the  wives, 
thereby  infuriating  the  husband  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
drives  out  the  man  who  said  he  would  rather  be  president 
of  the  Central  Pacific  than  president  of  the  United  States ; 
now  no  longer  should  he  be  president  of  this  band  of  rob- 
bers, whereupon  the  husband  of  the  plain  wife  with  the 
ethereal  sub-soul  is  retired,  and  the  husband  of  the  beauti- 
ful snubbed  one  reigns  in  his  stead. 

Nor  does  the  feud  end  there.  In  the  flaming  pages  of 
the  Argonaut,  under  the  virulent  pen  of  Frank  Pixley, 
with  classic  vituperation  Leland  Stanford  is  excoriated 
for  a  year  or  two,  until  there  is  little  of  him  left  but  his 
saintly  visage  and  Palo  Alto  horses — excoriations  evidently 
pleasing  to  Mr.  Pixley,  though  done  for  a  consideration, 
for  such  a  consideration  as  to  make  the  Pixley  pockets 
bulge  with  the  money  of  Huntington,  who  sat  happily 
upon  his  prostrate  foe  forever  after. 

It  was  truly  considerate  in  Plutus  to  raise  up  a  man 
like  Harriman  to  succeed  Huntington.  Harriman  was  a 
genius  of  another  order.  Huntington 's  genius  was  a  de- 
velopment, Harriman 's  was,  an  inspiration.  Both  were 


236  RETROSPECTION 

of  the  Napoleonic  order,  the  latter  especially.  These  two 
railroad  men — three  out  of  the  big  four  counting  for 
nothing — one  following  the  other,  ran  side  by  side  the  rail- 
road and  the  government,  the  people  meanwhile  being  held 
in  a  state  of  cowed  subserviency. 

This  for  the  western  country.  At  the  east  arose  oil 
men,  who  greased  the  railroads  and  strangled  the  other 
oil  men;  iron  men  gathered  up  the  other  iron  men,  reg- 
ulated the  tariff,  multiplied  their  former  values  by  ten, 
and  posted  their  names  everywhere  as  the  great  givers. 
The  others  pecuniarily  interested  in  these  operations  as 
owners  of  property  or  participators  in  the  profits  were 
members  of  high  society,  of  churches  and  charities,  with 
every  pretense  to  respectability. 

Never  of  themselves  would  the  astute  four,  or  any  one 
of  them,  have  thought  of  a  railroad  over  the  high  Sierra 
had  not  an  engineer,  one  T.  D.  Judah,  called  their  atten- 
tion to  it,  and  assured  them  of  its  practicability.  He  had 
been  over  the  ground,  and  would  make  a  further  survey 
for  a  share  in  the  enterprise,  the  promise  of  which  being 
readily  given  and  as  promptly  repudiated  when  the  work 
was  done.  Nor  would  the  opportunities  for  wholesale 
robbery  have  been  given  them  but  for  the  stress  of  the 
civil  war. 

This  war  with  its  attendant  evil  influences,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  high  crime  in  the 
United  States.  It  came  in  with  army  contracts  and  the 
overland  railroad,  and  has  been  growing  in  intensity  ever 
since.  The  same  infamous  tactics  which  yielded  such  rich 
plunder  in  manipulating  the  Central  Pacific  were  em- 
ployed by  others,  as  imperfect  construction,  fraudulent 
contract  and  finance  companies,  attended  by  the  burning 
of  such  account  books  and  papers  as  would  give  evidence 
in  court  against  them,  with  easy  forgetfulness  and  facile 
perjury. 

And  these  evil  examples  were  passed  on  to  posterity. 


THE  DARK  AGE  OF  GRAFT  237 

There  are  in  every  state  in  the  union,  in  California  not 
more  than  elsewhere,  sons  and  successors  of  the  original 
grafters  made  by  the  war,  who  never  in  their  lives  have 
drawn  an  honest  hreath,  whose  thoughts  are  ever  on 
cheating  and  overreaching,  in  which  accomplishments  those 
of  their  subordinates  who  become  most  efficient  are  ac- 
credited the  highest  honors  and  rewards.  Instead  of 
obedience  to  the  law  young  men  were  taught  to  subvert 
the  law,  to  control  legislation,  and  wrest  from  the  people 
the  management  of  their  own  economic  life.  Selfishness 
is  encouraged,  alliance  with  special  interests  and  privilege 
sought,  greed  fostered,  patriotism  ridiculed,  and  the  rights 
of  others  lightly  regarded. 

There  were  other  railroad  builders  over  the  Mississippi 
way  besides  the  Union  Pacific  from  whom  the  illustrious 
four  might  learn  the  tricks  of  the  trade,  and  there  were 
the  good  men  who  represented  us  at  Washington,  wearing 
themselves  out  studying  the  welfare  of  the  people,  and  in 
securing  their  own  reelection — these  knew  a  thing  or  two, 
for  it  was  now  a  full  decade  since  the  opening  of  the  war 
when  the  high  grafters  began  in  earnest  to  ply  their  pro- 
fession. And  the  rule  of  these  gentlemen,  our  good  neigh- 
bors the  patriotic  four,  who  stole,  and  lied,  and  tricked, 
and  perjured  themselves  so  skilfully,  or  had  always  some 
one  at  hand  to  do  it  for  them,  extended  throughout  all 
the  California  country  and  lasted  four  decades,  until 
Hiram  Johnson  came  and  brought  to  a  close,  let  us  hope 
forever,  our  Dark  Age  of  Graft. 

Forty  years!  It  is  a  long  time.  Anglo-California  at 
this  writing  is  not  yet  sixty-three  years  old,  and  forty  of 
those  years  given  over  to  the  tyranny  of  bad  men,  leaving 
only  the  fifteen  years  interregnum  following  the  dethrone- 
ment of  crime  by  the  grand  tribunal  of  1856.  Truly  we 
are  a  pusillanimous  lot !  Worse  than  the  children  of  Israel 
with  their  forty  years  wandering  in  the  desert,  their 
quails  and  manna,  their  whinings  and  bickerings  and  golden 
calf  and  ten  commandments,  and  never  a  spark  of  man- 


238  RETROSPECTION 

hood;  yet  they  had  their  Lord  God  and  Moses,  while  we 
had  only  these  four  foul  fish. 

Forty  years!  It  was  a  long  time  for  a  free  and  en- 
lightened people  to  remain  subservient  under  a  disgrace- 
ful despotism.  Merchants  and  manufacturers  were  cowed 
into  submission  while  the  economic  interests  of  the  entire 
country  were  paralyzed. 

We  have  seen  in  the  evolution  of  high  crime  something 
of  when  and  where  and  how  this  abominable  state  of  things 
originated  and  was  thrust  upon  us.  Going  back  fifty  years 
we  find  on  our  hands  a  great  civil  war,  which  breeds 
swindlers  as  cesspools  breed  gnats.  Then  we  prostitute 
the  privileges  of  our  high  citizenship  by  admitting  to  the 
franchise  four  or  five  millions  of  lately  emancipated 
African  slaves  and  a  horde  of  riffraff  from  Europe.  Then 
we  give  into  the  hands  of  a  few  grasping  men  a  large 
share  of  the  natural  wealth  and  resources  of  the  country, 
the  forests,  the  mines,  the  coal  and  iron  and  oil,  robbing 
the  people  at  large  to  enrich  the  few.  Frightened  by  the 
depredations  in  Pacific  waters  of  the  Confederate  steamer 
Alabama,  the  first  overland  railroad  was  hurried  forward 
at  any  cost,  while  the  builders  were  buried  under  a  deluge 
of  government  bonds,  land  grants,  and  contributions  from 
the  people. 

It  was  the  work  of  our  pet  octopus,  the  four-armed 
cuttle-fish,  who  built  for  us  the  Central  Pacific,  and  while 
acknowledging  its  benefits  and  inflictions  we  must  mark 
the  advent  of  dishonor  attending  it. 

Dating  from  1861,  the  influence  of  these  four  men  for 
evil,  with  that  of  their  successors,  increased  as  the  years 
passed  by.  One  of  them,  unscrupulous,  bold,  fearing 
neither  God  nor  man,  dominated  the  others,  who  were  not 
too  stupid  to  learn  rascality.  Hunting-ton  commanded  a 
respect  which  could  not  be  accorded  to  Leland  Stanford, 
a  man  of  bodily  presence,  made  up  of  pose  and  piety,  with 
Asiatic  eyes  placed  near  together,  and  which  rolled  heaven- 
ward in  hypocritical  ecstasy  whenever  he  wished  to  be 


THE    DARK    AGE    OF    GRAFT  239 

impressive — he  was  of  the  spiritualistic  persuasion,  and 
he  now  dwells  among  the  stars.  In  default  of  an  heir  he 
gave  his  money  to  found  a  university,  which  was  to  make 
high  crime  respectable,  and  which  act  was  used  in  his 
defense  at  Washington,  whereupon  a  senator  arose  and 
made  reply,  "We  do  not  want  our  children  educated  with 
stolen  money." 

But  from  the  large  attendance  at  the  institution,  and 
the  pains  taken  by  the  faculty  upon  all  occasions  to  preach 
political  purity,  it  would  seem  that  the  gentleman  from 
California  was  mistaken. 

Thus  became  formulated  in  the  minds  of  men  as  a 
principle  of  business  ethics  evasion  of  the  law  and  outwit- 
ting a  competitor,  quickly  to  become  breaking  of  the  law 
and  the  crushing  of  competition;  the  term  good  business 
becoming  significant  of  criminality,  a  manufacturer  as 
merciless  as  his  machinery,  a  citizen  studying  the  law 
under  whose  protection  he  lived* to  see  how  best  he  could 
break  it  and  save  his  own  precious  skin.  Good  business, 
not  as  of  old  the  result  of  application,  thrift,  and  fair 
dealing,  but  rather  of  false-swearing,  theft,  cheating,  and 
overreaching.  God  save  us !  If  this  is  good  business  what 
then  is  bad  business? 

Well,  good  or  bad,  it  is  the  sort  of  business  we  find  to- 
day closely  allied  to  crime,  such  crime  as  sends  a  poor 
man  to  prison.  We  find  it  closely  allied  to  wealth,  few  of 
the  great  fortunes  that  are  made  being  free  from  it.  We 
find  it  closely  allied  to  high  society,  closely  intimate  with 
high  living,  luxury,  and  extravagance. 

In  the  eastern  United  States,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  it  had 
already  come  to  pass  that  somewhat  of  the  former  prestige 
of  the  business  men  was  lost,  and  it  would  seem  that  they 
have  not  now,  all  of  them,  the  best  reputation  in  the  world 
for  honesty  in  their  dealings.  Our  foreign  competitors 
say  that  we  adulterate,  give  short  weights  and  poor  quality. 
If  this  is  true  it  is  very  wrong;  besides  it  does  not  pay. 


240  RETROSPECTION 

Is  it  wise,  in  promulgating  a  course  of  action  to  turn 
aside  and  mark  out  for  ourselves  a  winding  way  worse 
than  the  winding  way  of  those  whose  ethics  are  governed 
wholly  by  expediency? 

Benedict  Arnold  doubtless  thought  he  was  making  a 
good  bargain  when  he  sold  his  country,  and  Aaron  Burr 
regarded  his  reputation  enhanced  by  his  duel  with  Alex- 
ander Hamilton.  Major  Andre's  captors  may  have  been 
tempted  by  his  offer  of  money,  though  history  does  not 
say  so.  I  am  sure  Abraham  Ruef  would  have  regarded 
the  offer  with  disdain  as  not  large  enough.  Lincoln's 
assassin  thought  to  avenge  the  south  while  bringing  upon 
the  south  dire  destruction  in  thus  killing  its  best  friend. 
We  can  but  notice  how  little  good  bad  money  does  to  the 
cormorants  who  gather  it,  or  to  their  progeny  if  they 
leave  any.  To  us  it  may  appear  that  those  who  thus  sold 
their  souls  for  pay,  though  receiving  therefor  all  that  they 
were  worth,  made  a  poor  bargain  of  it. 

We  can  readily  understand  why  the  Southern  Pacific 
railway  entered  politics  so  early  and  fought  so  long  and 
vigorously  for  the  supremacy,  and  why  the  Santa  Fe  and 
Western  Pacific  railways  did  not.  These  two  doubtless 
have  sins  enough  to  answer  for,  but  not  of  the  kind  that  re- 
quires a  subversion  of  the  government  to  save  them  from 
the  penitentiary.  The  beneficiary  of  no  unlawful  policies, 
the  Western  Pacific  comes  to  California  and  attends  to  its 
own  business,  with  no  attempt  at  debauching  the  govern- 
ment, having  no  rascalities  to  cover  in  this  quarter. 

During  this  period,  pregnant  of  evil,  the  character  of 
the  population  underwent  a  change.  While  retaining  a 
dominant  influence  in  public  affairs  the  Anglo-American 
element  declined  in  numbers,  the  loss  being  more  than 
replaced  by  lower  grades  of  humanity  from  Europe  who 
cared  nothing  for  Americans  or  American  institutions. 
A  new  Christianity  was  preached  from  the  pulpits,  a  new 
doctrine  of  human  rights  was  practised  in  the  courts,  a 
new  code  of  commercial  ethics  was  installed  in  business 


THE   DARK   AGE    OF    GRAFT  241 

circles,  if  not  in  words  direct  then  in  words  and  actions 
indirect.  Newspapers  scurrilized  good  men  for  doing  good. 
And  of  the  church,  it  may  with  some  show  of  reason  be 
said  that  it  has  scarcely  proved  itself  in  all  cases  that  vital 
force  for  good  which  is  claimed  for  it  by  its  patrons. 

We  might  hope  to  see  American  character  reformed,  and 
the  earlier  influences  reestablished  in  the  coming  genera- 
tion, but  not  while  parents  are  teaching  their  children  the 
tricks  of  trade,  how  to  circumvent  the  right  and  over- 
throw the  efforts  of  good  men. 

What  did  they  teach,  these  new  instructors  of  the 
credit  inobilier  school,  so  lately  of  us,  grocer,  hardware 
merchant,  governor;  what  new  codes  of  industrial  ethics 
did  they  bring  over  the  mountains,  they  and  their  con- 
freres ? 

They  taught  us  how  to  falsify  accounts,  how  to  falsify 
weights  and  measures,  how  to  adulterate  and  deceive,  how 
to  water  stocks  and  get  up  sham  dividends,  how  to  sell  a 
worthless  mine  and  build  a  $200,000  court  house  for 
$400,000;  how  to  bribe  without  being  detected  and  swear 
falsely  without  being  arrested,  how  to  apply  road-money 
to  electioneering  purposes,  how  to  beguile  or  pacify  courts 
and  judges  so  as  to  make  the  practice  of  the  law  defeat 
the  purposes  of  the  law.  Later  in  this  school  were  taught 
theft,  perjury,  and  murder  pure  and  simple. 

And  the  result — a  few  brief  days  of  fatuous  swelling 
among  their  fellows  like  the  fabled  frog;  then  themselves 
to  earth,  their  names  to  infamy,  their  wealth  to  others,  and 
to  the  state  a  heritage  of  dishonor.  The  big  four!  And 
their  epitaph.  They  gorged  themselves  with  ill-gotten 
wealth,  betrayed  their  trust,  set  an  example  of  successful 
swindling,  leaving  to  posterity  the  air  foul  with  their 
memories. 

The  Fraser  river  mining  excitement  in  1858  carried 
away  15,000  of  California's  best  working  men,  while  the 
flood  of  1862  drove  many  farmers  to  the  city;  changes  to 


242  RETROSPECTION 

the  injury  alike  of  the  agricultural  interests  and  civic 
loyalty.  Droughts  in  1877  and  the  spread  of  Kearneyism 
with  the  persecution  of  the  Chinese  lowered  still  further 
the  morale  of  the  community.  A  working-man's  party 
was  organized,  and  a  new  constitution  framed,  the  primary 
purposes  of  which  were  to  equalize  rights  and  responsibil- 
ities, control  corporations,  and  make  the  rich  pay  their 
share  of  the  taxes,  in  almost  all  of  which  efforts  it  was 
unsuccessful. 

In  1885  Mr.  Stanford  made  himself  United  States 
senator  to  succeed  James  T.  Farley,  democrat,  chosen  by 
the  legislature  of  1877-8.  He  gave  as  an  excuse  for  thus 
placing  himself  where  he  could  hunt  his  game  at  close 
range  that  Mrs.  Stanford  had  expressed  a  wish  to  spend 
a  winter  in  Washington. 

Long  before  this,  however,  it  became  evident  that 
throughout  the  entire  United  States  intimate  relations 
existed  between  corporate  capital  and  the  office-holders. 
The  banner  cries  of  the  railway  politicians  were  mainly 
dead  issues,  the  only  vital  point  being  the  nursing  into 
greater  efficiency  the  infant  monster  graft. 

Aristocracy  and  democracy  had  ceased  to  oppose  each 
other,  as  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  commonwealth,  while 
the  new  republicanism  had  already  degenerated  to  a  con- 
dition bordering  on  anarchy.  The  people  became  slack  in 
their  duties  of  citizenship.  What  was  the  use?  The  wicked 
reigned,  and  there  was  at  hand  no  deliverance;  the  coun- 
try was  going  to  the  dogs,  had  already  gone  to  the  dogs, 
therefore  let  it  go.  They  suffered  to  be  made  mayor  a 
baptist  preacher,  I.  S.  Kalloch,  whose  son,  another  baptist 
preacher,  killed  Charles  de  Young  for  printing  offensive 
articles  in  the  Chronicle,  young  Kalloch  receiving  no  pun- 
ishment therefor. 

So  short  a  time  ago  these  from  whom  all  were  now 
begging,  themselves  were  begging  money  from  the  people 
wherewith  to  build  for  the  people  a  public  utility  to  be 


THE    DARK   AGE   OP   GRAFT  243 

run  for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  Little  faith  the  people 
had  in  them,  then  or  at  any  time  thereafter;  San  Fran- 
cisco gave  them  money,  but  would  not  accept  their  stock 
even  as  a  gift. 

Another  phase  of  civic  infelicity  which  came  in  with 
the  railroad,  the  later  somewhat  perturbed  nest  of  high 
crime  being  the  logical  outcome,  appeared  first  in  the  form 
of  mild  paralysis,  moral  and  industrial.  Three  successive 
dry  seasons,  with  general  collapse  in  values,  disarrange- 
ment in  business  by  the  new  railway,  with  financial  de- 
pression* throughout  the  world,  prepared  the  soil  for  the 
seeds  of  unrest.  Bossism  and  bribery  put  forth  their  re- 
pulsive fronts,  timidly  at  first,  then  with  bolder  mien. 
Under  these  inflictions,  attended  by  labor  strikes  and  the 
officiousness  of  labor  leaders,  those  bandits  of  industry, 
enemies  alike  to  the  workingman  and  of  the  public,  and 
the  arrogance  of  the  railway  monopolists,  who  levied  their 
tribute  on  transportation,  there  is  little  wonder  that  busi- 
ness men  should  still  fail  to  rally,  but  continued  to  present 
themselves  in  marked  contrast  to  their  bold  and  chivalrous 
predecessors  of  the  gold-digging  days. 

Great  but  silent  at  that  time  was  the  taxation  tyranny, 
now  happily  at  an  end,  and,  let  us  hope,  forever.  At  a 
meeting  of  bankers  upon  a  certain  occasion,  said  one  to 
tfie  other:  "How  is  it  that  your  big  bank  is  assessed  so 
low  and  my  small  bank  so  high?"  "Give  the  assessor  a 
thousand  dollars  and  you  will  know,"  was  the  reply. 

Railroad  men,  cogs  in  the  wheels  of  the  great  machine, 
have  no  code  of  morals  down  in  their  time-tables;  but  in 
mercantile  communities  bankers,  whose  occupation  is  the 
handling  of  other  people's  money,  and  who  impose  their 
personality  upon  the  public  in  somewhat  undue  degree 
from  the  glitter  of  gold  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
the  lesser  industrial  lights  come  to  regard  in  a  measure 
as  mentors  in  business  matters.  Therefore,  when  the  largest, 


244  RETROSPECTION 

the  most  influential,  the  most  enterprising  and  popular  of 
Pacific  coast  financiers  set  the  example  of  bold-faced 
bribery,  is  it  any  wonder  that  a  single  family  dynasty  should 
hold  the  assessor's  office  for  a  whole  decade,  harvesting 
meanwhile  hundreds  of  thousands,  or  that  this  same  banker, 
not  long  afterward,  should  turn  defaulter,  wreck  his  bank, 
and  kill  himself.  Great  financial  lights,  as  in  other  forms 
of  greatness,  are  invested  with  a  halo,  which,  when  dimmed 
by  indirection,  casts  a  gloom  over  honorable  traffic. 

In  1891  the  San  Francisco  grand  jury  began  work  in 
earnest  to  discover  frauds  and  send  criminals  up  for  pun- 
ishment. Stephen  T.  Gage,  of  the  Southern  Pacific  board 
of  directors  and  later  railway  governor  of  the  state,  re- 
fused to  appear  as  a  witness.  As  the  result  of  their  efforts 
they  found  that  bribery  was  a  constant  and  important 
element  in  legislation,  with  little  attempt  at  concealment. 

Leland  Stanford  was  called  upon  to  testify,  whereupon 
the  supreme  court  declared  that  the  grand  jury  was  im- 
properly constituted  by  reason  of  some  trifling  irregularity. 
A  thousand  such  instances  might  be  cited  as  showing  the 
contempt  in  which  was  held  courts,  justice,  and  considera- 
tion for  the  public. 

A  committee  of  one  hundred  citizens  was  appointed  by 
Mayor  Phelan  to  draft  a  new  charter,  which  was  adopted 
at  the  next  election,  but  failed  to  accomplish  any  consider- 
able reform. 

Hope  arose  now  and  then  for  a  brief  period  in  the 
hearts  of  the  people,  as  when  a  truly  honest  and  conscien- 
tious man  was  chosen  governor  or  perhaps  sent  to  the 
United  States  senate.  But  in  all  the  forty  years  of  our 
dark  age  there  was  scarcely  one  of  that  category  elected 
governor  or  sent  to  Washington,  as  there  was  scarcely 
one  attained  office  who  was  not  infected  in  greater  or  less 
degree  with  the  railroad  virus.  George  C.  Perkins  started 
in  well  as  governor,  but  lapsed  into  subserviency  rather 
than  lose  his  seat  in  the  senate,  thus  lessening  the  respect  of 
his.  fellow  citizens.  James  D.  Phelan,  always  one  of  San 


THE    DARK   AGE    OF    GRAFT  245 

Francisco's  best  men,  made  a  noble  stand  as  mayor  against 
the  wealthy  ring  that  stood  ever  ready  to  ruin  the  city. 

A  blind  man  named  Buckley  got  control  of  the  re- 
publican party  and  levied  contributions  for  a  time  on  a 
liberal  scale.  Late  in  the  century  the  citizens  came  to- 
gether and  put  an  end  to  his  rule,  and  blind  Boss  Buckley 
was  driven  from  the  state,  which  work  so  tested  their 
strength  as  to  show  the  unafraid  with  what  ease  they  might 
secure  good  government  if  they  only  adopted  the  proper 
measures.  And  may  we  not  drop  a  tear  or  two  over  the 
poor  afflicted  one,  touched  with  the  anger  of  the  Almighty, 
when  for  a  while  before  his  departure  a  strange  hand  laid 
upon  his  shoulder  brought  pale  fear  to  his  face  and  filled 
his  darkened  soul  with  terror. 

During  the  administration  of  Mr.  Phelan  occurred  a 
teamsters'  strike  in  which  cruelty  and  brutality  on  the 
part  of  the  strikers  as  against  non-union  men  caused  a 
wider  breach  than  ever  between  capital  and  labor.  Between 
the  domination  of  the  railroad  men  and  the  demands  of 
labor  business  men  began  to  feel  that  American  rights 
and  citizenship  were  something  of  a  farce  when  one  could 
no  longer  control  one's  own  affairs. 

Up  to  this  time  the  octopus  had  spent  its  bad  breath 
upon  the  state  rather  than  on  the  city,  but  now  labor  comes 
forward  in  the  form  of  walking  delegates  to  foul  its  own 
nest. 

The  choice  of  the  walking  delegates  for  mayor  fell  on 
Eugene  Schmitz,  himself  a  labor  leader  and  orchestra 
musician,  a  dull,  phlegmatic  infloat  from  the  German  bor- 
der ;  for  supervisors  mixed  breed  Italian-German  and  Irish- 
French,  a  type  of  alien- American  citizens  in  most  of  our 
large  cities;  for  master  and  manipulator  a  little  curly- 
headed  Jew,  Abraham  Ruef,  attorney  he  called  himself, 
educated  at  the  expense  of  the  state  at  Berkeley,  later  to 
serve  the  state  in  return  at  San  Quentin. 

Several  of  the  Phelan  supervisors  retained  their  places 
during  the  earlier  part  of  the  Schmitz  administration,  so 
9 


246  RETROSPECTION 

that  it  was  not  until  after  the  second  election  of  Schmitz 
in  1903  that  Mr.  Ruef  was  enabled  to  marshal  his  forces 
in  full  array. 

Ready  now  to  reach  out  for  business  his  active  mind 
ran  over  several  schemes  which  seemed  simple  enough  to 
work.  One  was  a  proposed  car  strike  which  should  de- 
moralize business  and  send  down  values  so  that  city 
bonds  might  be  bought  in  by  the  bankers  at  a  low  price. 

Approaching  Rudolph  Spreckels  with  this  proposition, 
the  banker's  eyes  were  opened  to  the  rottenness  of  things 
around  him,  and  he  resolved  to  take  active  measures  for 
reform. 

Meanwhile  Ruef  himself  was  approached,  Schmitz  re- 
ferring to  him  all  applications  for  franchises  or  favors. 
"Would  he  sell  us  some  of  the  city's  good  things?"  Oh, 
yes,  he  would  sell  them  all,  sell  them  twice,  if  need  be,  sell 
the  buyers,  sell  to  both  sides,  peradventure,  and  deliver  the 
goods  to  neither.  Catch  them  at  it?  Who  was  to  catch, 
and  what?  Might  not  a  lawyer  practise  his  profession? 
And  was  he  not  entitled  to  his  fee,  say  two  thousand  dol- 
lars for  properly  policing  a  disreputable  house  up  to 
two  hundred  thousand  retainer  from  a  rich  corporation? 
And  who  was  to  talk  about  it  ?  No  one  who  was  not  him- 
self seeking  the  retirement  of  a  prison  cell. 

Schmitz'  elevation  to  office  was  strictly  a  class  issue, 
and  his  elections  and  administrations  were  so  skilfully 
managed  by  Ruef  that  the  question  was  frequently  dis- 
cussed as  to  when  if  ever  the  chains  thus  fastened  upon  the 
municipality  would  be  broken.  But  wide-spread  as  was 
his  sway,  Ruef  could  not  control  the  district  attorney's 
office,  to  which  William  H.  Langdon  had  been  elected  on 
the  union  labor  ticket,  a  man  who  always  proved  true  to 
his  trust.  That  infamy  remained  to  be  accomplished  at 
a  later  date  by  the  high  bribers  by  placing  in  the  office  one 
of  their  many  tools  for  the  purpose  of  stopping  prosecu- 
tions. 

Such  was  the  situation.     The  city  had  sold  herself  and 


THE    DARK   AGE    OF    GRAFT  247 

the  buyers  were  now  selling  the  city.  No  way  seemed 
possible  to  prevent  the  robbery  of  millions  by  this  unholy 
crew.  The  fire  of  April,  1906,  arrested  their  work  but  for 
a  moment.  A  spasm  of  contrition  passed  over  them,  as 
they  beheld  the  destruction  of  the  city,  pity  for  the  suffer- 
ing, the  starving,  whose  distress  they  helped  to  relieve  by 
the  distribution  of  the  charities  which  came  pouring  in  on 
them,  but  most  of  all  pity  for  themselves  lest  their  occupa- 
tion should  be  gone.  But  all  other  considerations  quickly 
passed  from  them  when  once  assured  that  the  city  would  be 
rebuilt,  and  their  field  for  plunder  vastly  enriched  by  the 
catastrophe. 

The  campaign  of  the  reflected  officials  opened  auspi- 
ciously. Almost  every  rich  man  wanted  something,  and 
that  made  business.  Schmitz  and  the  supervisors  took 
what  was  given  them,  often  in  silence,  and  no  questions 
asked,  and  voted  as  they  were  told.  It  was  a  happy  family ; 
the  members  not  wise,  however,  in  displaying  their  new 
riches  so  ostentatiously.  One  answer  fitted  all  complaints 
brought  to  Schmitz,  ''See  Ruef,"  as  in  the  palmy  days  at 
the  assessor's  office  the  refrain  was,  "See  my  brother." 
And  to  all  appearances  the  beautiful  game,  all  winning,  all 
secure,  the  police  such  gentle  creatures,  might  continue 
for  two  score  years  longer,  in  which  case  the  fate  of 
the  city  it  is  fearful  to  contemplate.  It  was  well  enough 
known  to  outsiders  what  was  going  on,  but  how  to  reach 
the  wrong,  to  grasp  and  eradicate  it  under  existing  condi- 
tions, that  was  the  question. 

About  this  time,  at  the  suggestion  of  President  Roose- 
velt, Francis  J.  Heney,  who  had  been  successfully  engaged 
in  the  prosecution  for  the  United  States  of  certain  high 
offenders  in  Oregon  and  elsewhere,  spent  some  months  in 
San  Francisco  in  quiet  observation.  When  satisfied  as  to 
the  state  of  things,  he  made  it  known  that  Schmitz  and 
Ruef  should  be  sent  to  prison,  and,  with  proper  coopera- 
tion, he  was  sure  he  could  send  them  there.  He  should  re- 


248  RETROSPECTION 

quire  with  him  the  district  attorney  and  be  able  to  act  as 
his  deputy.  He  should  need  the  assistance  of  William  J. 
Burns,  chief  active  detective  in  the  United  States  service, 
who  had  proved  so  efficient  in  the  Oregon  land  fraud  cases 
and  elsewhere.  For  himself  he  would  accept  no  fee,  but 
funds  would  be  necessary  for  the  expense  of  litigation. 
For  these  funds  the  district  attorney  must  not  be  under  obli- 
gations to  the  general  public,  nor  be  held  accountable  to 
any  committee  of  citizens  as  to  expenditures.  Against  the 
money  of  the  bribers  and  the  elusiveness  of  the  bribed 
there  was  small  hope  of  conviction  under  the  ordinary 
processes  of  the  law.  It  must  be  a  still  hunt.  The  curly 
boss  was  very  cunning,  and  to  go  after  him  with  blare  of 
trumpets  would  only  excite  his  derision. 

Thus  was  freely  discussed  from  time  to  time  the  ques- 
tion of  the  deliverance  of  the  city  by  the  four  men  whose 
hearts  were  now  warming  to  their  work. 

The  wisdom  of  these  stipulations  appeared  later.  The 
people  at  large,  and  the  working-men,  at  first  favored  the 
prosecution,  as  was  shown  by  returning  Langdon  as  dis- 
trict attorney  by  a  large  majority.  But  the  corporations, 
and  the  bankers  at  their  instigation,  raised  the  cry  of  injury 
to  business  and  brought  about  a  change  of  sentiment,  which 
resulted  later  in  the  defeat  of  good  government  at  the  polls. 

After  several  consultations  with  Phelan  and  Heney, 
Spreckels  agreed  to  finance  the  prosecution,  stipulating 
only  that  the  work  should  be  continued  to  a  finish,  that  there 
should  be  no  outside  interference,  that  rich  and  poor  should 
be  treated  alike,  and  that  no  honor  or  emolument  arising 
from  this  work  should  be  sought  or  accepted. 

It  was  clear  that  crime  could  be  reached  only  through 
the  criminal;  so  Mr.  Burns  opened  the  ball  by  catching  a 
supervisor  in  a  trap  and  making  him  confess.  Under 
promise  of  whole  or  partial  immunity  all  the  supervisors 
then  confessed,  and  finally  the  tricky  Ruef  himself.  It 
was  so  much  a  part  of  his  oily  nature  to  save  his  skin  at 
the  cost  of  his  friends  and  confederates  that  he  could  not 


THE   DARK   AGE    OF    GRAFT  249 

withstand  the  temptation,  and  so  brought  on  the  unex- 
pected. Later,  unable  to  keep  faith  even  with  the  prosecu- 
tion, and  influenced  no  doubt  by  the  gold  of  the  rich  men, 
Ruef  doubled  on  himself,  as  he  is  likely  to  do  again  should 
occasion  offer. 

How  by  Ruef's  testimony  Schmitz  was  convicted  and 
sent  to  prison;  how  Ruef  by  his  own  confession  was  pro- 
nounced guilty  and  placed  in  charge  of  an  elisor  for  further 
utilization  I  have  not  room  for  details  here.  The  super- 
visors were  directed  to  keep  their  seats,  obedient  to  their 
masters  of  the  prosecution,  which  they  were  only  too  glad 
to  do.  They  were  told  to  declare  the  office  of  mayor  vacant, 
and  put  one  of  their  number  in  his  place;  he  in  turn  to 
nominate  and  place  in  the  mayor's  chair,  Edward  R. 
Taylor,  a  well  known  citizen,  retained  in  his  seat  by  a 
large  majority  at  the  next  election.  The  supervisors  were 
then  permitted  to  resign  and  scatter,  Taylor  choosing  for 
himself  a  new  board.  All  this  was  done  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Spreckels,  who,  as  dictator  held  the  govern- 
ment of  San  Francisco  in  his  hand,  and  might  have  shaped 
it  to  selfish  ends  had  he  been  so  disposed.  Selecting  with 
care  men  of  ability  and  integrity  to  be  installed  in  the 
various  offices  he  made  up  a  good  government  ticket  which 
was  elected  by  a  sweeping  plurality. 

Heney  was  made  deputy  district  attorney  under  Lang- 
don  and  began  his  prosecutions  in  1906  with  129  indict- 
ments against  Ruef,  besides  those  against  Schmitz,  Calhoun, 
and  others.  Implicated  directly  or  indirectly  in  charges 
of  a  more  or  less  criminal  nature  were  the  Telephone,  the 
Gas  and  Electric,  and  the  Parkside  companies,  and  the 
United  railroads,  together  with  certain  bankers  and  busi- 
ness and  professional  men,  and  a  number  of  gambling 
houses,  prostitution  palaces,  and  French  restaurant  estab- 
lishments. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE  INJUSTICE  OF  LAW 

IN  the  nomenclature  of  American  politics  the  terms  law 
and  justice  are  loosely  used  and  often  misapplied. 
For  example,  we  often  hear  it  said  that  "justice  is  based 
on  law  and  order,  and  without  law  and  order  there  can  be 
no  justice,"  yet  the  phrase  is  meaningless.  Justice  is  an 
attribute;  law,  an  entity.  Justice  is  a  vital  principle  of 
progressive  humanity;  law  is  an  article,  manufactured  to 
fit  the  occasion.  Justice  is  infinite  and  eternal;  law  is 
finite  and  transient. 

However  we  may  weld  together  the  terms  in  statutes 
and  tribunals,  however  we  may  sound  them  from  the  ros- 
trum there  is  no  relativity  between  them. 

There  are  many  courts  of  law  in  the  United  States; 
there  are  some  courts  of  justice.  And  although  it  seems 
at  times  that  justice  comes  high,  the  overthrow  of  justice 
comes  still  higher.  To  secure  justice  in  a  fair  tribunal  of 
justice  simple  words  properly  proved  should  be  all  that  is 
necessary,  whereas  to  defeat  justice  subtle  ways  and  ex- 
pensive tricks  are  required. 

What  is  the  price  of  justice  in  this  Republic?  Is  it  so 
costly  an  article  or  so  difficult  to  obtain  as  to  make  it 
necessary  for  every  large  trust,  corporation,  and  special 
interest  to  retain  in  its  service  a  corps  of  expensive  attorneys 
and  judges?  Is  it  to  secure  or  defeat  the  ends  of  justice 
that  these  men  are  employed  ?  Is  it  to  secure  or  defeat  the 
ends  of  justice  that  smart  lawyers  with  no  conscience  are 
able  to  sell  their  services  at  thirty  or  fifty  thousand  dollars 
a  year? 

250 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF    LAW  251 

Are  laws  made  to  secure  the  ends  of  justice,  or  is  justice 
made  to  secure  the  ends  of  law  ?  How  is  it  that  on  opening 
court  justice  is  caged  and  set  aside,  while  all  tongues  go 
clamoring  about  law?  "Your  Honor,  this  is  the  law. 
Your  Honor  is  herein  bound  by  the  law.  Your  Honor 
will  instruct  the  jury  as  to  the  law. ' '  Never  a  word  about 
justice  or  right  or  wrong,  but  paramount  in  every  tribunal, 
great  or  small,  it  is  from  first  to  last  law,  law,  law. 
The  best  paid  lawyer  is  not  he  who  secures  justice,  but  he 
who  most  successfully  bamboozles  facts  and  manipulates 
the  statutes. 

But  laws  are  the  fundamental  element  of  civilized  so- 
ciety, the  sign  manual  of  progress.  As  the  laws  are  heard 
and  obeyed  the  people  prosper,  the  powers  of  mind  taking 
the  place  of  brute  force.  By  law  the  universe  regulates 
itself;  nebula  revolves  to  substance  and  substance  clashes 
to  nebula ;  the  cosmos  is  law.  So  we  are  taught. 

Wherefore,  although  it  is  a  nuisance,  at  times  cruel, 
merciless,  unjust,  iniquitous,  it  is  a  necessary  evil,  and  we 
will  not  try  to  get  away  from  it. 

However  inexorable  law  may  be  in  regard  to  the  uni- 
verse, in  the  affairs  of  men  law  is  the  creature,  not  the 
creator.  As  we  have  long  made  our  gods  without  knowing 
it,  so  now  we  make  our  laws,  and  knowing  it  or  not,  in- 
continently turn  them  into  gods  and  fall  down  and  worship 
them. 

Law  is  essential  to  continued  progress;  there  can  be  no 
real  or  continued  progress  without  justice;  therefore  in  a 
certain  sense  it  may  be  said  that  law  is  essential  to  the  com- 
plete and  proper  development  of  justice. 

If  men  were  more  skilful  in  the  manufacture  of  law, 
if  the  laws  that  were  made  to  accomplish  certain  purposes 
did  accomplish  them,  then  those  who  go  to  court  to  get 
justice  might  be  willing  to  take  law  instead.  But  as 
law  is  so  generally  served  up  in  our  courts  in  place  of 
justice,  would  it  not  be  well  to  have  more  courts  of  justice 
and  fewer  courts  of  law? 


252  RETROSPECTION 

If  in  America  we  do  not  as  a  rule  keep  up  that  clown- 
ish barbarism  of  wig  and  gown  in  court,  in  making  of  the 
judge  a  Santa  Glaus  to  frighten  litigants  and  overawe  the 
people,  and  of  the  officiating  attorneys  in  like  robes  mounte- 
banks giving  to  the  court-room  a  burlesque  air,  we  still  re- 
tain in  our  minds  enough  of  the  ancient  superstition 
regarding  law  as  to  cause  us  to  forget  that  law  and  govern- 
ment are  made  by  the  people  for  the  people  and  not  the 
people  for  law  and  government, — in  a  word  that  the  people 
are  law  and  government,  that  judges  are  the  servants  of 
the  people,  and  that  the  court-room  with  its  clap-trap  is 
simply  machinery  to  aid  the  people  in  giving  expression 
to  their  will. 

"Ah!  in  England,  don't  you  know,"  says  my  cockney 
friend,  "we  wouldn't  think  we  could  get  justice  if  the 
judge  and  solicitors  did  not  appear  in  wig  and  gown." 

All  the  same  the  English  courts  are  superior  to  ours, 
in  that  the  judges  are  sincere  and  direct,  ignoring  pretence, 
hypocrisy,  and  cant,  forbidding  absolutely  the  employ- 
ment of  technicalities  and  legal  legerdemain  in  which  our 
jurists  so  delight.  Compared  with  those  of  England  our 
courts  of  law  are  a  fraud  and  a  farce;  a  fraud,  because 
five  times  as  much  money  and  time  are  spent  over  them 
as  is  necessary,  and  a  farce,  because  when  this  is  done 
three-fourths  of  these  strained  efforts  bring  no  adequate 
results. 

On  the  invitation  of  Lord  Chief  Justice  Alverton, 
Judge  Hunt,  of  San  Francisco,  sat  through  a  day's  session 
of  the  criminal  court  of  appeals  in  London.  In  two  and 
a  half  hours  of  that  session  five  cases  o-n  appeal  were  heard 
and  decided,  oral  decisions  being  rendered  from  the  bench 
as  soon  as  the  cases  were  submitted.  Another  amazing 
thing  noted  by  Judge  Hunt  was  that  in  England  the  im- 
panelment  of  a  jury  takes  but  little  time,  frequently  being 
completed  in  a  few  minutes. 

In  answer  to  this  one  might  say  that  a  competent  jury 
of  disinterested  men  in  an  important  case  cannot  be  picked 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF   LAW  253 

up  off  hand  in  half  an  hour.  No?  Well,  then  can  a 
competent  jury  of  disinterested  men  in  an  important  case 
be  secured  in  three  days,  or  in  three  months?  Is  ever  such 
a  jury  secured?  Is  it  ever  the  aim  or  desire  of  the  at- 
torneys on  either  side  to  get  such  a  jury ;  is  it  not  rather 
their  aim  to  get  jurymen  prejudiced  in  their  client's  favor? 

Is  it  not  as  fair  for  one  side  as  for  the  other  to  allow 
the  judge  to  impanel  his  twelve  men  in  the  jury  box  and 
go  on  with  the  trial,  after  having  asked  each  one  a  few 
pertinent  questions? 

And,  finally,  would  it  not  be  as  well  to  have  honest 
and  capable  judges  to  try  cases,  without  being  hampered 
by  the  useless  presence  of  twelve  ignorant  or  idiotic  men, — 
judges  subject  to  recall,  that  when  a  bad  man  gets  him- 
self upon  the  bench  he  may  be  replaced? 

Attorneys  in  England  are  prohibited  from  asking  un- 
necessary questions,  which  explains  why  the  jury  in  the 
famous  Crippen  case  was  obtained  in  two  hours.  Crippen 
was  defended  by  masters  of  technical  law,  and  yet  he  was 
tried  and  convicted  in  three  days,  and  hanged  on  schedule 
time. 

Speaking  of  the  attitude  of  English  courts  toward 
gentlemen  of  the  bar,  Judge  Hunt  says:  "Courtesy  is  the 
watchword.  Not  a  question  is  permitted  to  be  answered 
or  a  word  spoken  which  will  tend  to  prolong  an  action. 
An  appeal  taken  on  a  technicality  is  an  unknown  quantity. 
The  great  masses  of  court  records  which  we  in  this  country 
associate  with  an  appeal  are  unknown  in  England.  De- 
cisions on  appeal  are  given  orally  and  immediately  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  argument." 

I  thank  Judge  Hunt  for  his  signal  service,  as  it  enables 
me  to  ask  why  we  cannot  have  courts  more  like  those  of 
England,  and  judges  who  will  execute  justice  in  one  quarter 
of  the  time  and  cost  now  employed,  and  put  a  stop  to  hair- 
splitting and  hunting  for  technicalities? 

How  different  from  our  high  priests  of  jurisprudence 
who  are  so  buried  beneath  the  weight  of  superfluous  learn- 


254  RETROSPECTION 

ing  as  to  require  often  a  year  or  two  to  work  their  way  out 
of  it  with  a  decision  which  even  then  may  be  nearer  wrong 
than  right.  The  truth  is  they  are  obsessed  by  technical- 
ities; nicety  in  quibbling  is  practised  as  a  fine  art. 

Laws  in  opposition  to  public  weal  and  popular  opinion 
are  and  should  be  inoperative. 

Laws  made  to  secure  the  ends  of  justice  but  which  de- 
feat justice  are  absurd,  and  if  continued  they  hold  up  to 
scorn  the  intelligence  of  the  people  who  permit  them  to 
exist. 

The  United  States  Supreme  judge  who  delights  more 
in  exhibiting  his  skill  in  splitting  hairs  and  finding  techni- 
calities than  in  exacting  justice  disgusts  even  Mr.  Taft, 
who  does  not  take  the  trouble  to  split  his  hairs  but  carries 
his  complaints  to  Congress. 

The  judge  who  sits  upon  the  bench  incapable  of  doing, 
or  unwilling  or  failing  to  do  that  for  which  he  was  created 
is  a  worthless  machine  which  should  be  thrown  away.  But 
the  judge  was  not  created  to  do  justice,  we  are  told.  Then 
let  the  proper  laws  be  made  by  the  proper  law-making 
power,  and  not  go  on  century  after  century,  learned  counsel 
beating  the  air  before  solemn  judges  in  deep  meditation 
over  the  absurd  conglomeration  called  a  code.  The  time 
spent  in  wrangling  over  a  single  case  by  our  so  learned  ju- 
rists should  be  sufficient  to  frame  the  simple  rules  which 
would  secure  justice.  But  were  the  laws  plain  and  the  road 
to  justice  easy  where  would  be  the  occupation  of  our  so 
learned  jurists  with  their  long  talks  and  large  fees. 

It  is  well  enough  to  say  that  the  judge  is  sworn  to  ad- 
minister the  laws  and  not  to  make  them,  and  that  it  would 
be  dangerous  to  allow  him  to  unreel  out  of  his  own  brain 
in  the  name  of  justice  whatever  his  fancy  or  feelings  should 
at  the  moment  dictate. 

Is  this  more  dangerous  than  to  depute  twelve  men  with 
little  brains  to  spare  thus  to  unreel,  not  the  law  but  the 
evidence  which  they  hold  is  or  should  be  one  with  the  law  ? 
Further  than  this,  what  code  of  laws  was  ever  made  that 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF    LAW  255 

an  astute  judge  could  not  find  flaws  enough  in  it  to  defeat 
the  purpose  of  the  law?  Far  better  is  an  honest  judge 
with  a  few  laws  than  an  unintelligent  jury  with  many  laws. 

Or  if  the  laws  are  so  ineffective  and  judges  so  unre- 
liable why  do  not  men  learned  in  the  law  make  the  laws 
what  they  should  be  without  spending  so  much  time  in 
idle  talk,  and  then  let  the  people  install  men  as  judges  to 
administer  these  laws  and  execute  justice?  Here  in  these 
United  States,  in  the  fiftieth  century  of  our'  civilization, 
for  men  of  learning  and  intelligence  to  stand  around  like 
images  of  wood  or  stone  realizing  the  miserable  condition 
of  things,  the  imperfections  of  the  law  and  the  inefficiency  of 
the  courts,  with  little  or  no  attempt  to  remedy  matters  is 
not  praiseworthy  on  the  part  of  the  profession. 

It  is  ridiculous  that  laws  should  be  allowed  to  stand 
whose  operation  divides  the  minds  of  the  ablest  men,  when 
they  should  be  so  direct  in  securing  justice  that  a  school-boy 
might  construe  them. 

Here  is  an  assembly  called  a  court  of  justice  with  in- 
terpreters of  the  law  and  ministers  of  learning.  With  due 
solemnity  the  judge  takes  his  seat  amidst  calls  for  order. 
Then  begins  the  battle  between  law  and  justice  and  when 
justice  is  duly  overthrown  the  conqueror  steps  proudly 
forth,  once  more  a  victor  in  many  battles. 

Is  not  the  mens  legis,  the  spirit  of  the  law,  to  be  con- 
sidered at  all,  but  only  the  letter  of  the  law  ? 

Let  us  have  law  and  order  by  all  means,  and  statutes 
and  constitutions,  and  fighting  men  and  hangmen,  and 
battle-ships  and  penitentiaries,  all  to  serve  the  fetish  law, 
but  let  the  law  meanwhile  feed  its  fetish.  Law  is  a  neces- 
sary evil,  and  judges  must  confine  their  decisions  within 
the  limits  of  it,  but  as  long  as  law  is  so  faulty  is  it  wise 
to  so  blindly  serve  it  ?  Might  we  not  have  a  law  that  courts 
should  first  of  all  secure  justice  and  that  a  law  which  de- 
feats justice  should  be  inoperative? 

Indeed  steps  have  already  been  taken  in  certain  quarters 
in  that  direction^  as  an  amendment  to  the  constitution  for- 


256  RETROSPECTION 

bidding  the  reversal  of  a  judgment  by  the  supreme  court 
on  technical  grounds,  which  is  a  step  toward  giving  justice 
the  supremacy  before  the  law  that  it  deserves. 

When  the  wise  mechanician  sees  that  his  machine  is 
imperfect,  that  instead  of  accomplishing  his  purpose  it  de- 
feats it,  will  he  endow  it  with  inexorable  necessity  and 
stand  by  in  a  state  of  imbecility,  and  declare  that  though 
he  made  the  machine  he  must  not  alter  its  running? 

As  laws  are  made  to  secure  the  ends  of  justice,  if  they 
fail  in  this  they  are  not  laws,  or  should  not  be  so  con- 
sidered, and  it  should  not  be  permissible  for  the  judge  to 
construe  them  to  the  obstruction  of  justice. 

An  illegitimate  child  may  not  claim  a  share  in  the 
parental  estate.  Is  this  right?  No,  but  it  is  the  law.  That 
is  to  say,  a  law  is  made  and  placed  upon  the  statute  books 
to  perpetuate  injustice?  It  seems  so.  Then  let  the  law  be 
changed,  and  until  it  is  changed  the  people  it  appears  must 
submit  to  legalized  injustice. 

Before  the  American  bar  association,  in  New  York,  G. 
"W.  Kirchwey,  dean  of  the  Columbia  law  school,  declared 
that  "Our  courts  must  realize  once  for  all  that  the  power 
to  do  justice,  greater  than  the  power  to  administer  law,  is 
the  power  that  is  really  committed  to  them;  that  a  prece- 
dent is  only  a  signpost  pointing  out  the  direction  in  which 
the  feet  of  justice  must  go,  not  a  rule  binding  upon  the 
mind  and  conscience  of  the  judge;  that  our  courts  are 
set  in  their  high  places  as  interpreters  of  the  popular  sense 
of  morality  and  right  and  the  popular  sense  of  justice,  not 
as  interpreters  of  obscure  oracles  handed  down  from  a 
remote  antiquity.  They  will  receive  and  they  will  de- 
serve respect  so  long  as  the  law  which  they  lay  down  is  the 
expression  of  the  public  will,  and  no  longer." 

There  is  no  excuse  whatever  for  the  miserable  machinery 
we  have  for  grinding  out  justice.  A  stranger  from  Al- 
truria  sitting  in  one  of  our  court-rooms  for  half  an  hour 
would  set  us  down  for  a  nation  of  imbeciles.  What  is  it 
they  are  trying  to  do?  he  would  ask.  Or  what  is  it  they 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF   LAW  257 

are  trying  not  to  do  ?  Not  one  murderer  in  ten  is  punished 
at  all ;  not  one  in  a  hundred  is  hanged ;  for  killing  twenty- 
one  men,  working-men,  in  a  bunch,  and  confessing  to  it,  the 
murderer,  a  labor  leader,  is  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for 
life,  but  will  probably  be  set  free  in  a  few  years  to  go  forth 
and  kill  twenty-one  more,  if  he  chooses  to  do  so. 

A  somewhat  hollow  appendage  of  law  is  precedent. 
What  is  precedent?  Previous  usage;  something  similar 
and  antecedent,  which  because  of  having  been  used  must 
be  used  again.  Sound  or  unsound,  right  or  wrong,  just 
or  unjust,  having  once  taken  part  in  a  judicial  decision  it 
becomes  a  rule.  The  absurdity  of  which  appears  in  the 
excuse  of  the  California  supreme  court  when  brought  up 
against  an  admitted  violation  of  the  constitution  in  the 
Ruef  case,  which  was  that  it  was  only  following  its  own 
custom ! 

A  law  once  broken,  or  an  illogical  or  absurd  ruling  made 
by  a  high  tribunal,  it  is  a  precedent,  and  may  be  used 
indefinitely  to  legally  break  laws  and  enforce  unjust  de- 
cisions. 

It  made  it  right  because  a  supreme  judge  had  broken 
the  law  these  many  times  for  him  to  go  on  breaking  it  at 
all  times,  so  he  said.  And  he  was  right,  if  there  is  so 
much  in  precedent. 

Whether  or  not  precedent  is  sensible  and  sound, 
whether  or  not  it  is  right  and  proper  to  follow  precedent 
depends  altogether  on  what  the  precedent  is,  which  reduces 
the  proposition  to  an  absurdity. 

The  great  obstacle  standing  in  the  way  of  the  reforma- 
tion of  court  practice  is  the  fetish  that  men  of  the  law  make 
of  their  profession.  Learned  in  the  law,  learned  in  the 
scriptures,  are  expressions  which  to  the  vulgar  mind  imply 
something  akin  to  the  supernatural,  and  lawyers  and  judges 
seem  tinctured  a  trifle  with  like  superstition.  Nowhere 
was  this  ever  more  clearly  exemplified  than  in  the  wide- 
spread discussions  relative  to  the  recall  of  the  judiciary, 


258  RETROSPECTION 

in  which  was  displayed  a  rather  unusual  lack  of  logic. 
Nowhere  have  our  lawyers  and  judges,  guardians  of  juris- 
prudence and  ministers  of  justice,  ever  appeared  at  greater 
disadvantage  than  while  speaking  on  this  measure,  which 
has  been  adopted  by  so  many  of  the  states.  The  attitude 
assumed  and  the  arguments  advanced  were  the  outcome  of 
various  motives  or  idiosyncracies.  The  ablest  attorneys, 
who  should  and  did  know  better,  were  governed  by  their 
relations,  actual  or  desired,  with  the  judges.  To  advo- 
cate their  recall  would  antagonize  the  court  and  lessen  the 
influence  of  the  pleader. 

Another  class  believes  it  bad  for  judges  to  be  placed  in 
a  position  so  closely  subservient  to  public  vagaries. 

A  third  class  holds  to  the  superstition  that  law  and  limbs 
of  the  law  belong  to  the  category  of  things  sacred,  and  not 
to  be  lightly  handled  by  the  layman. 

Some  of  the  judges  favored  recall,  and  some  were  against 
it.  Mr.  Taft,  usually  found  on  the  wrong  side  of  any 
question,  and  if  ever  again  made  a  judge  would  himself 
soon  be  a  fit  subject  for  recall,  strongly  opposed  the 
measure. 

It  was  for  lawyers  and  judges  an  unfortunate  break 
in  the  long  age  of  their  adoration  this  abrupt  revolution  in 
ideas  and  sentiment  concerning  law  and  justice,  concerning 
the  rulership  of  men  by  men,  the  rulership  of  the  people 
by  the  people;  it  was  unfortunate  for  the  judiciary  that 
their  sanctity  should  be  thus  imperiled  and  their  prestige 
thus  lost  to  them  forever. 

To  a  layman  the  arguments  advanced  by  the  judges 
showed  a  fundamental  error  of  judgment,  a  warped  intellect 
not  unlike  that  displayed  by  Mr.  Gladstone  in  his  discus- 
sions with  Robert  Ingersoll.  The  former  assumed  that 
the  scriptures  were  the  inspired  word  of  God  and  attempted 
to  prove  their  validity  by  the  writings  themselves.  The 
judges  assumed  that  they  were  different  from  others,  that 
the  judge  and  his  office  were  sacred.  The  people  do  not 
so  see  it.  They  see  nothing  in  the  judge  or  in  his  office, 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF    LAW  259 

or  in  courts  of  law — all  articles  manufactured  by  the  people 
— that  need  protection  from  the  will  of  the  people  that  are 
not  found  in  governors,  legislators,  sheriffs,  or  other 
officials. 

The  question  arises,  are  those  judges  with  minds  so 
warped  by  so  simple  a  subject  as  the  recall  of  the  judiciary, 
are  they  competent  to  hold  court  at  all,  or  attempt  to  de- 
termine other  simple  subjects  ? 

Such  judges  as  still  hold  to  these  ancient  hallucinations 
would  do  well  to  give  them  up,  for  the  people  will  have  the 
recall  whether  the  judges  like  it  or  not,  and  if  any  do  not 
wish  to  serve  on  these  terms  they  are  not  obliged  to  do  so. 

To  the  reflective  mind  of  average  penetration  all  the 
arguments  opposing  the  recall  of  judges  while  favoring 
the  recall  of  other  officials  are  equally  fallacious.  Those  of 
the  first  class,  where  the  argument  is  made  simply  to  curry 
favor  with  the  court,  are  not  worthy  of  consideration,  being 
hypocritical  throughout. 

Those  emanating  from  the  second  and  third  categories 
are  equally  unsound.  The  first  usually  advanced  is  the 
effect  of  popular  pressure  upon  the  decision  of  the  court. 
This  implies  three  equally  absurd  conditions.  First,  the 
fear  of  recall  is  or  should  be  no  greater  than  the  fear  of 
non-election  for  another  term,  and  poor  indeed  must  be 
our  opinion  of  one  we  imagined  so  weak  and  culpable  as 
to  speak  falsely  through  fear  of  losing  office.  Second,  no 
judge  was  ever  yet  recalled  for  rendering  a  righteous 
judgment,  nor  is  he  ever  likely  to  be.  Third,  no  righteous 
judge  ever  yet  feared  recall. 

No  nation  accords  its  judiciary  a  higher  position  than 
the  United  States,  and  for  the  most  part  our  judges  are 
able  and  honest.  They  are  the  bulwark  of  society  and  ex- 
ercise a  powerful  influence  'for  good.  How  can  we  say, 
then,  that  such  men  are  so  weak  and  timid  as  to  allow  their 
decisions  to  be  influenced  by  fear  of  the  people  who  elected 
them,  by  fear  of  any  consideration,  least  of  all  that  of 
losing  office!  To  discourage  judicial  legislation,  as  is  the 


260  RETROSPECTION 

tendency  of  the  profession,  is  to  reduce  the  supreme  court 
to  a  piece  of  machinery,  to  serve  as  a  balance-wheel  for 
the  regulation  of  the  law. 

Admit  as  they  tell  us,  those  learned  in  the  law,  that 
judges  are  not  lawmakers,  that  they  are  not  administrators, 
that  they  are  not  to  determine  what  the  law  should  be  but 
what  it  is,  and  that  their  independence,  their  sense  of  dig- 
nity and  of  freedom  is  of  the  first  consequence  to  the  stabil- 
ity of  the  state.  We  should  answer  that  man  establishes 
the  law,  while  a  power  superior  to  that  of  man  establishes 
justice.  Men  make  a  law  which  until  abrogated  must  be 
blindly  followed,  though  it  leads  down  to  destruction. 
This  makes  a  fool  of  one  and  a  fetish  of  the  other. 

They  might  argue  that  as  the  laws  are  conflicting  and 
justice  erratic  they  would  reserve  to  themselves  the  right 
of  interpretation  and  like  the  judges  follow  their  own 
shades  of  opinion.  One  is  as  logical  as  the  other;  the  law 
impedes  justice  for  the  judge  and  business  for  the  grafter. 

What  is  a  government  without  a  constitution,  they  ask ; 
what  is  a  court  of  justice  without  law ;  what  is  a  judiciary 
without  hidebound  books  to  keep  the  judges  straight  ?  Do 
we  want  to  invest  courts  of  law  with  arbitrary  power,  and 
give  them  legislative  as  well  as  judicial  functions,  and  per- 
mit the  judge  to  determine  cases  according  to  his  fancy? 
If  the  law  is  faulty  change  it,  but  do  not  ask  the  judge  to 
forswear  himself. 

By  no  means.  First  let  the  law  be  just,  then  let  the 
law  say  to  the  judge,  in  cases  where  law  and  justice  con- 
flict, let  justice  govern.  If  the  incumbent  is  not  competent 
to  do  this,  remove  him,  and  put  in  his  place  a  man  who  is 
competent. 

Idle  talk,  impracticable,  will  not  work,  they  would  say. 
Then  adopt  some  course  that  will  work,  any  course  but 
the  present  one,  which  works  too  well  for  the  devotees  of 
high  crime. 

To  say  that  courts  of  law,  as  at  present  existing,  are  not 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF   LAW  261 

swayed  more  by  corporate  money  and  elective  legerdemain 
than  by  the  interests  of  the  commonwealth  is  to  say  what 
every  one  knows  to  be  untrue.  Judges  as  well  as  senators 
and  presidents  are  very  human,  and  few  decisions  are 
rendered  that  are  not  first  submitted  to  the  subconscious 
lime-light  of  future  elections. 

The  eyes  of  the  judge  resting  on  a  wealthy  litigant  are 
not  the  same  eyes  that  regard  the  ragged  offender. 

The  people  are  the  law  and  the  government.  The 
people,  not  the  judges,  are  the  Almighty.  The  people 
think  more  of  right  and  wrong  than  of  the  law,  the 
judges  care  nothing  for  right  or  wrong,  the  law  is  their 
deity. 

Judges  should  not  be  influenced  by  popular  feeling, 
they  say.  Why  ?  Judges  are  not  infallible ;  they  are  mere 
men  like  ourselves.  The  people  are  sometimes  right  when 
the  judges  are  wrong.  Or  if  judges  should  not  be  swayed 
by  the  people,  should  they  then  be  swayed  by  the  eloquence 
of  an  attorney?  The  Almighty  who  listens  alike  to  the 
prayers  of  his  people  and  the  howlings  of  the  mob  judges 
all.  May  not  earthly  judges,  therefore,  hear  without  preju- 
dice the  voice  of  the  people, — which  we  have  been  told  is 
the  voice  of  God — as  well  as  the  words  of  a  paid  pleader? 
The  one  is  spontaneous,  the  other  partisan ;  the  one  is  void 
of  special  interests,  the  other  is  for  thus  much  moneys  per 
diem. 

It  appears  then  in  the  matter  of  recall  that  the  people 
may  be  trusted  to  elect  a  judge,  but  not  to  discharge  him. 
At  election,  it  is  the  sovereign  people;  at  a  recall  it  is  the 
mob.  To  recall  a  state  judge  in  most  of  the  states  requires 
the  names  of  50,000  or  more  voters  to  a  petition,  and  after 
that  a  majority  of  the  voters  at  the  polls, — quite  a  con- 
siderable mob. 

When  there  can  be  no  recall  except  by  a  majority  of 
all  the  voters  in  the  state,  and  that  is  mob  rule,  then  the 
state  is  a  mob.  In  an  elective  judiciary  the  judge  is  re- 
sponsible to  the  people.  He  may  call  the  people  a  mob  if 


262  RETROSPECTION 

he  likes,  he  may  say  of  those  who  elected  him  to  office  that 
they  are  a  rabble  and  under  the  rule  of  passion,  it  makes 
no  difference;  these  are  they  who  placed  him  on  the  bench, 
and  to  them  alone  must  he  answer  for  his  acts,  that  is  to 
say  if  he  still  wishes  to  serve  a  mob  in  the  capacity  of 
judge. 

Will  the  recall  lessen  the  independence  of  the  judges 
more  than  it  is  already  lessened  by  the  desire  for  reelection  ? 
Will  fear  of  recall  be  greater  than  present  fear  of  defeat 
at  the  polls? 

It  would  make  judges  subservient  to  the  people  and 
compel  the  bench  to  assume  an  attitude  of  defense,  we  are 
told.  And  why  not?  The  judge  is  one  of  the  people, 
chosen  by  the  people,  and  if  charged  with  error  or  misde- 
meanor why  should  he  not  defend  himself? 

Prominent  members  of  the  legal  profession  who  regard 
the  law,  or  pretend  so  to  regard  it,  as  something  sacred,  and 
the  machinery  of  law  not  to  be  tampered  with,  who  invest 
the  presiding  officer  with  more  than  ordinary  powers  and 
dignities,  with  worshipful  forms  of  approach  and  address, 
disrespect  not  to  say  intimidation  being  sacrilegious,  do 
not  so  without  a  purpose.  Hence  the  arguments  of  the 
greatest  lawyers  are  of  the  least  value  in  determining  this 
question. 

Fear  of  the  effects  of  the  recall  shows  lack  of  confidence 
in  both  the  people  and  the  judiciary. 

Voters  sufficiently  intelligent  to  elect  good  officials  are 
not  likely  to  undo  their  work  without  cause.  No  judge 
with  clean  hands  and  a  pure  conscience  need  ever  be  afraid 
of  the  people  who  placed  him  in  office. 

When  the  district  court  of  the  District  of  Columbia 
proved  disloyal,  in  the  absence  of  any  provision  for  the 
recall  of  judges  Mr.  Lincoln  had  Congress  abolish  that 
court  and  establish  a  new  one,  leaving  the  unjust  judges 
to  their  own  devices.  Comparing  this  incident  with  Taft's 
presumptuous  veto  of  the  Arizona  statehood  bill  Senator 
Clapp  said,  "There  is  absolutely  no  logical  distinction  be- 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF    LAW  263 

tween  the  recall  as  applied  to  bad  judges  and  the  recall  for 
other  bad  officers. ' ' 

A  judge  of  the  United  States  supreme  court,  Stephen  J. 
Field,  sitting  in  San  Francisco  and  Los  Angeles,  feared 
assault  from  a  former  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Cali- 
fornia, David  S.  Terry,  employed,  not  the  law,  but  an 
attache  of  the  court  to  attend  and  protect  him.  Travelling 
up  from  the  south  on  one  occasion  it  happened  that  the 
two  judges  found  themselves  on  the  same  train.  Stopping 
to  dine,  Terry  finished,  and  was  passing  out  by  where  Field 
was  seated  with  his  man  when  Terry  flipped  his  glove  in 
Field's  face.  Whereupon  Field's  man  rose  in  his  seat  and 
shot  Terry  dead.  The  slayer,  some  would  say  murderer, 
was  arrested,  and  after  a  form  of  trial  was  of  course  ac- 
quitted. 

Here  is  a  striking  example  of  the  law's  logic,  a  proof 
of  how  much  or  how  little  faith  the  man  of  law  places  in 
his  profession.  Was  it  not  an  unjustifiable  assault?  Yes, 
but  there  is  the  law.  Was  not  the  dignity  of  the  court 
assailed?  Yes,  but  there  is  the  law.  Or  should  the  court 
keep  a  gun  in  its  desk  wherewith  to  maintain  its  dignity? 
Is  then  the  law  a  fitting  instrument  for  every  thing  ex- 
cept itself?  Is  it  fair  and  proper  for  me  to  kill  a  man  for 
flipping  his  glove  in  my  face?  Is  it  right  for  a  United 
States  supreme  judge  to  do  so?  Field  knew  his  life  was 
not  in  danger,  that  Terry  sought  only  to  insult  him. 

Behold  the  majesty  of  the  law!  Here  was  a  judge  in 
good  standing  and  in  the  possession  of  all  his  faculties, 
sitting  on  the  bench  of  the  highest  tribunal  in  all  the  two 
Americas,  backed  by  all  the  enginery  of  power  in  the  United 
States;  when  his  person  is  threatened  by  violence,  instead 
of  invoking  for  protection  the  law  which  he  so  liberally  dis- 
penses to  others,  he  orders  an  assassination  in  the  old  ven- 
detta form,  and  sees  it  carried  out  in  his  own  presence. 
And  never  a  word  of  inquiry  or  reproach  from  any  of  the 
limbs  of  the  law. 

When  the  mayor-preacher's  son  shot  to  death  a  news- 


264  RETROSPECTION 

paper  man  for  alleged  defamation,  a  prominent  lawyer, 
on  hearing  of  it,  exclaimed,  "I'm  glad  of  it."  "Yes," 
said  his  informer,  "now  hang  the  young  lord  of  the 
mayoralty  and  two  of  them  will  be  disposed  of. ' ' 

"He  shan't  be  hanged;  he  shan't  be  hanged!"  broke 
forth  the  lawyer  violently. 

"Why,  judge,  I  thought  you  were  a  law  and  order  man. 
A  force  outside  of  the  law  slew  the  man,  now  let  the  law 
slay  the  slayer." 

"He  shan't  be  hanged,  he  shan't  be  hanged,"  was  the 
only  argument  this  able  jurist  could  find  in  extenuation  of 
an  illegal  act. 

William  T.  Sherman,  at  one  time  army  captain  and 
banker  in  San  Francisco,  a  vehement  though  illogical  de- 
fender of  impotent  law,  took  offence  at  something  James 
Casey  said  of  him  in  a  newspaper  Casey  published. 

"I  went  up  stairs  to  Casey's  room,"  Sherman  says, 
"and  told  him  if  he  ever  attempted  to  levy  blackmail  on 
me  or  my  brother  bankers  again,  I  would  pitch  him  and  his 
press  out  of  the  third  story  window. ' ' 

Oh!  my  dear  General,  why  this  violence,  why  this  dis- 
graceful display  of  mobocracy,  why  not  employ  the  law  or 
call  out  the  military? 

Indeed,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  an  officer  or  servant 
of  the  law,  a  professional  or  military  man  of  ordinary 
spirit,  who  has  not  many  times  in  the  course  of  an  active 
life  taken  the  law,  in  a  greater  or  less  degree,  into  his  own 
hands  despite  his  ceaseless  shoutings  of  law  and  order. 
Even  the  saintliest  divine,  in  his  dealings  with  the  devil, 
does  not  always  follow  the  law  of  the  Lord. 

It  is  really  amusing  as  we  look  back  upon  it,  the  ab- 
surdity of  it  all,  the  actual  supporters  of  law  and  order 
arrayed  ostensibly  against  law  while  securing  the  purposes 
of  the  law ;  the  limbs  of  the  law,  and  its  loud-mouthed  advo- 
cates, flourishing  their  pistols  and  bowie-knives  in  defense 
of  lawbreakers,  and  shouting  defiance  to  law-respecting 
citizens. 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF    LAW  265 

Limbs  of  the  law,  as  quickly  as  laymen,  will  become  a 
mob  to  quell  a  mob. 

Geary,  the  mayor,  calls  vigilance  "an  unlawful  and  dis- 
graceful business,"  and  then  joins  it.  J.  Neely  Johnson, 
governor,  denounces  vigilance  and  incontinently  assaults 
Lawrence,  editor  of  the  Times  and  Transcript,  the  governor 
getting  the  worst  of  the  fight.  Murray,  chief  justice  of 
the  supreme  court  of  California,  and  Terry,  one  of  the  as- 
sociate judges,  delighted  in  deeds  of  chivalry  beyond  the 
pale  of  the  law. 

Were  a  business  man  to  manage  his  business  as  the 
judges  manage  theirs,  he  would  soon  find  himself  standing 
alone. 

Were  a  business  man,  in  the  management  of  his  affairs, 
soberly  to  consider  such  chicane  as  judges  claim  to  be  nec- 
essary he  would  be  called  a  trickster. 

Were  a  business  man  to  take  the  time  and  employ  the 
methods  of  judges  in  reaching  conclusions  and  deciding 
issues  he  would  not  long  be  a  business  man. 

There  is  no  more  necessity  for  judges  to  act  outside 
the  pale  of  common  sense  than  there  is  for  business  or  mili- 
tary men  to  do  so.  A  general  taking  two  years  in  which  to 
plan  a  campaign  would  cut  no  more  ridiculous  figure  than 
a  judge  who  put  off  a  decision  for  two  years  which  should 
be  rendered  in  two  days,  and  which  an  English  judge  would 
determine  in  two  minutes. 

The  rule  of  a  clique  or  a  cabal  is  but  little  better  than 
the  rule  of  a  mob.  The  judge  who  decides  for  law  against 
justice  is  a  more  dangerous  instrument  in  public  affairs 
than  the  judge  who  decides  for  justice  against  law.  The 
central  idea,  or  frenzy  if  you  like,  of  the  mob  is  on  the  side 
of  justice,  and  where  justice  is  quickly  and  surely  meted 
out  there  is  no  mob  rule. 

A  slavish  following  of  ill-constructed  laws  is  the  cause 
of  half  the  crime  and  of  all  the  mobocracy.  If  sometimes 
might  seems  to  make  right,  we  may  be  sure  that  at  the  end 


266  RETROSPECTION 

right  makes  might.  No  law,  leaving  the  mob  to  have  its 
way,  is  better  than  bad  or  imperfect  law  which  compels 
the  conscientious  judge  to  an  act  of  injustice. 

Man  being  man  coercion  is  one  with  his  nature.  He 
not  only  loves  to  coerce  others  but  he  feels  the  necessity 
himself  of  being  coerced,  not  by  others  but  by  himself.  So 
he  makes  laws  for  himself  and  others.  He  subscribes  to 
them.  He  reveres  them.  They  are  Moloch,  more  than 
Diana  of  the  Ephesians,  more  than  the  golden  calf  at 
Mount  Sinai.  Created  as  an  aid  to  righteousness,  they  are 
more  than  righteousness;  created  to  secure  the  ends  of 
justice  they  are  more  than  justice.  Moloch,  Diana,  and  the 
Calf  are  greater  than  their  makers.  Were  it  not  better  to 
make  justice  the  Moloch,  the  Diana,  and  the  Calf,  and  let 
law  serve  the  end  for  which  it  was  created? 

The  law  no  longer  stands  upon  a  pedestal  of  Moloch  ap- 
proached with  bowed  head  and  bended  knee,  its  high  priests 
the  holy  ones  of  a  reincarnation.  Though  the  profession 
may  not  realize  it,  the  truth  is  that  law  practice,  courts 
and  their  personnel  are  all  undergoing  changes.  Judges 
have  lost  prestige,  lawyers  their  influence,  and  courts  of 
law  their  sacredness. 

The  Asiatics  have  30,000  deities  good  and  bad.  The 
bad  ones  they  propitiate  by  prayer.  The  good  ones,  being 
good,  need  no  supplicating.  The  modern  high  jurist  has 
30,000  technicalities,  each  one  a  god,  and  all  bad,  and  so 
requiring  endless  adoration  and  praise. 

As  you  pass  a  person  on  the  street  unconsciously  you 
take  his  measure.  As  you  speak  with  him  you  feel  it  still 
more.  His  voice  rings  true  or  false;  he  cannot  disguise 
it ;  he  is  what  he  is.  I  have  seen  sitting  on  the  bench  men 
so  fixed  in  constitutional  integrity  that  no  power  on  earth 
could  commit  them  to  a  dishonest  course.  Measure  up 
properly  the  man  you  make  judge  and  neither  you  nor  he 
need  ever  fear  recall.  Such  a  man  would  recall  himself 
long  before  those  who  voted  him  into  office  would  have 


THE    INJUSTICE    OF   LAW  267 

an  opportunity  of  doing  so  when  once  he  found  his  honor 
or  his  manhood  placed  in  circumscription. 

San  Francisco  has  always  had  some  good  superior  court 
judges,  able  and  conscientious  men,  with  minds  more  in- 
tent on  present  duty  than  on  future  reelection,  and  not 
afraid  to  send  a  rebuke  to  the  judges  of  a  higher  court 
whenever  they  deemed  it  necessary.  With  regard  to  the 
higher  courts  it  has  been  from  the  first  entirely  different. 
No  greater  scoundrels  ever  disgraced  a  judicial  bench 
than  some  of  the  supreme  judges  of  gold-digging  days, 
southerners,  mostly,  fire-eaters,  murderers,  pimps,  and 
prostitute  keepers,  more  criminal  than  any  criminal  class 
the  country  has  ever  seen.  And  they  have  had  some  worthy 
successors,  and  yet  always  enough  others  of  high  integrity 
sufficient  to  save  the  state.  The  railway  men  paid  little 
attention  to  judges  of  the  lower  courts,  but  took  care  always 
to  own  and  control  the  appellate  tribunals. 

When  Hiram  Johnson  overthrew  railway  rule,  however, 
he  drew  the  sting  from  these  wasps  also,  and  with  the 
scare  from  late  publicity,  and  its  effect  upon  the  pend- 
ing bill  for  the  recall  of  judges,  these  high  officials  deemed 
it  about  time  to  attend  to  their  own  reformation. 

Too  much  is  made  of  the  law;  there  are  too  many 
lawyers,  too  many  judges  and  courts  of  law.  An  increase 
of  judges  is  asked  for  when  the  number  should  be  reduced, 
instead,  and  every  judge  in  office  should  be  required  to  do 
twice  the  work  in  half  the  time. 

At  the  same  time  the  country  needs  a  better  judiciary, 
able  judges  of  high  integrity ;  state  attorneys  who  spare  no 
pains  to  punish  the  guilty  but  will  not  convict  the  innocent 
of  crime  for  reputation's  sake;  honest  lawyers  with  an 
open  mind  and  clean  tongue;  jury-box  void  of  wooden 
images;  and  over  the  judicial  bench  the  inscription,  Law 
always,  but  Justice  First. 


CHAPTER   XV 

AN    UNHOLY    ALLIANCE 

ONE  would  think  that  a  single  experience  like  the 
Schmitz  and  Ruef  episode  would  prove  sufficient  for 
any  community  for  a  lifetime,  but  it  seems  that  further 
humiliation  must  be  endured  before  accomplishing  the  com- 
plete regeneration  of  the  city,  now  near  at  hand.  And  we 
must  always  remember  that  it  was  not  the  people  of  San 
Francisco,  or  of  California,  who  thus  chose  the  lower  life, 
but  cliques  and  classes  of  society  banding  in  various  forms 
and  degrees  for  the  furtherance  of  their  personal  interests 
and  evil  instincts,  without  regard  to  their  own  good  name 
or  to  the  prosperity  of  the  commonwealth. 

During  the  Taylor  administration,  which  stood  for 
good  government  and  the  punishment  of  criminals,  rich 
and  poor  alike,  there  were  four  several  classes  that  chafed 
under  the  restraint. 

First,  the  high  bribers,  who  found  themselves  in  danger 
of  prison  bars.  Prosecution  to  them  was  exceedingly  dis- 
tasteful. With  these  were  their  friends  and  sympathizers, 
men  of  financial  standing  and  easy  morals,  having  business 
relations  with  the  criminals. 

Secondly,  corporations,  special  interests,  and  the  many 
lawyers  and  politicians  who  live  by  guiding  corporate  capi- 
tal through  the  mazes  of  the  law,  escaping  the  law  while 
breaking  it,  as  the  Southern  Pacific  railway,  its  governors 
and  satellites,  who  besides  running  their  trains  had  for  so 
long  a  time  been  running  the  government.  Convenient  for 
these,  as  well  as  for  the  bribers  themselves,  was  a  prosecu- 
ting attorney  who  would  not  prosecute  whenever  an  imple- 
ment so  vile  could  be  found. 

268 


AN   UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  269 

Third,  the  predatory  press  that  sold  itself  to  infamy  for 
a  small  price  at  the  first  offer. 

And  finally  the  low  element,  so-called  but  in  reality  no 
lower  than  the  highest  of  this  unholy  category,  the  denizens 
of  the  Tenderloin,  thieves  of  low  degree  after  the  manner  of 
the  olden  time,  procurers,  gamblers,  and  the  keepers  of 
French  restaurant  assignation  houses,  all  who  delighted  in 
the  thought  of  a  promised  free  open  town,  a  Paris  in 
America. 

All  these,  together  with  the  herds  of  voters  their  money 
and  influence  could  drive  up  to  the  polls,  were  fewer  in 
number  than  the  adherents  of  good  government,  which  were 
and  are  the  real  San  Francisco.  So  anxious,  however,  were 
the  bankers,  street  railway  officials,  and  all  the  other  classes 
above  mentioned  to  defeat  Heney  and  stop  the  prosecutions 
of  the  rich  criminals  that  they  agreed  to  debauch  their 
city  and  turn  her  over  to  the  so-called  labor  union  party 
in  return  for  that  party's  agreement  to  support  and  help 
elect  to  the  office  of  district  attorney  a  man  who  would  have 
all  the  indictments  dismissed. 

This  then  was  the  unholy  alliance,  by  means  of  which 
was  elected  mayor  of  San  Francisco  another  labor  leader, 
even  more  objectionable  if  possible  than  Schmitz,  one  P. 
H.  McCarthy,  a  blatant  Irishman,  coarse,  vulgar,  brazen- 
faced, and  wofully  incompetent — a  man  whom  these  same 
bankers  and  capitalists  would  not  have  had  connected  with 
their  own  business  in  any  capacity. 

A  pair  of  Pats,  and  a  thousand  other  Pats;  Pat  of  the 
southern  chivalry,  Pat  of  the  Emerald  isle ;  in  the  enforced 
embrace  each  feels  himself  degraded.  And  justly  so.  Not 
that  Pat  scorned  Pat  the  less,  but  that  Pat  loved  his  liberty 
more.  Wherefore  a  new  shuffle  and  a  new  deal.  High 
low  Pat  and  the  game.  And  over  the  dunes  is  heard  the 
battle  cries,  Stand  Pat  Calhoun!  Stand  Pat  McCarthy! 
For  Pat  joins  Pat  and  the  country  goes  to  Pat.  St.  Pat- 
rick save  us !  Why  drave  he  all  his  snakes  to  America  ? 


270  RETROSPECTION 

In  an  unholy  alliance  capital  joins  hands  with  labor, 
and  not  a  blush  upon  the  face  of  either.  Decency  must  be 
defeated  at  any  cost  as  it  hurts  business.  High  crime  and 
low  crime  fraternize  better  than  graft  and  good  government. 

Before  the  world  Pat  and  Pat  were  not  friendly,  but 
in  private  Pat  played  into  Pat's  hands  with  distinction. 
If  Pat  would  help  Pat  elect  to  office  certain  men  bad  enough 
for  his  purposes,  notably  a  lawyer,  a  lonely  lawyer,  and 
such  a  little  one,  you  know,  Pat  would  help  make  a  mayor 
of  Pat.  For  Pat  did  not  like  to  think  of  himself  in  short 
hair  and  striped  clothes  behind  prison  bars,  even  though 
the  intervening  supreme  court  should  smile  upon  him  re- 
assuringly. And  as  for  his  company,  whose  twenty-five 
millions  of  money  had  been  transmuted  by  some  magic 
process  into  ninety  millions  of  stock,  011  which  the  munici- 
pality was  kindly  requested  to  allow  a  fair  interest  to  be 
made, — this  company  would  like  the  Geary  street  or  other 
city  railroads  discouraged. 

Union  labor  alone  as  I  have  said  never  elected  any  one 
to  office  in  San  Francisco.  It  was  only  when  the  labor 
leaders  joined  hands  with  high  crime  to  defeat  good  govern- 
ment that  they  found  themselves  successful  at  the  polls. 
And  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  whenever  a  labor  leader 
was  elected  to  office,  the  working-men  were  always  the  first 
to  sicken  of  him.  So  with  regard  to  the  chivalrous  sup- 
porters of  high  crime,  whenever  they  placed  one  of  their 
tools  in  office  they  were  quick  to  become  disgusted  with  him 
and  drive  him  out.  They  wanted  only  virtuous  women  to 
enjoy,  and  men  of  high  integrity  to  do  their  dirty  work. 
Let  all  the  world  be  good,  else  there  is  no  relish  for  them 
in  their  crooked  ways. 

The  suzerainty  of  Mr.  Patrick  Calhoun  in  San  Fran- 
cisco was  not  attended  by  flattering  success.  A  strong 
man  of  determined  purpose,  as  his  ample  jaw  and  thick 
neck  indicated,  he  carried  about  him  too  much  the  air  of 
a  bully  to  please  people  inclining  rather  to  the  intellectual. 
That  he  •  possessed  courage  no  one  doubted,  particularly 


AN   UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  271 

after  he  had  stricken  down  with  his  huge  fist,  in  open  court, 
a  little  fellow  who  had  spoken  irreverently  of  some  of  the 
not  too  charming  qualities  of  the  Carolinian.  Calhoun 
had  driven  the  union  strikers  off  his  cars,  for  which  act 
the  people  praised  him.  Had  he  appeared  before  them  in 
the  guise  of  the  Southern  gentleman  he  professed  to  be,  he 
could  have  had  anything  in  reason  at  the  hands  of  the 
municipality.  When  tempted  to  fall,  had  he  exposed  the 
tempter  and  vindicated  his  own  integrity,  he  would  have 
saved  himself  and  the  city  much  trouble,  and  have  got  his 
wire-poles  planted  without  debauching  the  town.  As  it 
is  he  will  scarcely  be  able  to  reinstate  himself  in  the  good 
opinion  of  good  men. 

San  Franciscans  are  the  easiest  people  in  the  world  to 
get  along  with,  affable,  liberal,  and  tolerant,  but  the  lower- 
ing eye  and  set  jaw  of  the  bully  or  bulldozer  does  not  ap- 
peal to  them.  They  are  not  afraid — that  is  to  say  since 
Hiram  Johnson  delivered  them  from  the  Philistines.  They 
never  were  quick  to  take  offense  where  none  was  intended. 
Too  long  a  lesson  they  had  in  sufferance  under  the  railway 
infliction,  but  they  are  regaining  their  manhood,  and  South 
Carolina  gentlemen  should  have  a  care,  especially  in  ob- 
structing their  utilities  while  seeking  interest  on  ninety 
millions  of  stocks  and  bonds  which  cost  twenty-five  mil- 
lions or  less  in  coin. 

It  was  in  January,  1906,  that  Mr.  Spreckels  and  Mr. 
Phelan  matured  plans  for  a  crusade  against  crime,  which 
with  the  aid  of  Mr.  Heney  and  Mr.  Burns  was  inaugurated 
the  following  June,  shortly  after  the  great  fire,  which  in- 
terrupted their  operations  for  a  short  time. 

In  April,  1908,  the  house  of  James  L.  Gallagher,  chair- 
man of  the  boodling  supervisors  and  chief  witness  against 
Calhoun,  was  dynamited,  the  family  narrowly  escaping 
death.  Notwithstanding  which  Gallagher  was  afterward  in- 
duced to  leave  the  state  and  reside  abroad  until  the  bribery 
cases  were  dismissed. 


272  RETROSPECTION 

It  is  not  strange  that  indicted  criminals  undergoing 
trial  should  resort  to  further  crime  to  facilitate  escape.  It 
is  difficult  to  prove,  but  not  difficult  to  imagine  by  whom 
was  instigated  the  dynamiting  of  Gallagher's  house,  the 
bribing  of  jurors,  the  shooting  of  Heney,  the  theft  of  gov- 
ernment papers,  and  other  crimes  committed  to  defeat 
justice. 

The  prosecution  of  the  distinguished  criminals  dragged 
its  slow  course  along,  every  possible  impediment  being 
thrown  in  the  way  of  justice  that  the  mind  could  invent 
or  money  procure. 

Mr.  Heney  was  shot  down  in  the  court  room,  narrowly 
escaping  with  his  life.  His  assassin  was  shot  in  jail,  some 
think  by  those  who  set  him  on  to  kill  Heney. 

There  are  few  examples  in  history  of  baser  ingratitude 
than  that  bestowed  by  San  Francisco  on  Francis  J.  Heney 
for  his  signal  service  in  delivering  the  city  from  the  hands 
of  evil-minded  men.  All  along  through  these  years  of 
laborious  effort,  his  most  efficient  services  given  without 
recompense  or  reward,  bought-up  newspapers  barked  at 
him ;  bankers  and  their  friends  snarled  at  him  because  of  a 
fancied  injury  to  their  beloved  business  which  a  cleansing 
of  the  city  would  entail;  the  prosecuted  ones  cursed  him 
low  and  deep,  as  they  were  having  no  good  time  of  it. 

Nor  did  the  lesser  villains  of  low  degree  like  him,  the 
sort  of  fellows  that  a  little  money  would  hire  to  shoot  him 
down  in  court  or  dynamite  the  dwelling  of  one  of  his  wit- 
nesses. And  during  these  almost  superhuman  efforts  the 
lower  courts  supporting  him  nobly  while  the  upper  courts  on 
some  trumped-up  technicality  hurled  back  upon  him  one 
convicted  criminal  after  another,  all  these  rich  and  poor 
supporters  of  high  crime  while  throwing  every  possible 
impediment  in  his  way  jeered  at  him.  "Why  don't  you  do 
something?"  they  cried.  "Why  don't  you  send  the  crimi- 
nals you  talked  about  to  prison  ? ' '  And  all  the  while  came 
pouring  in  upon  him  from  the  anti-prosecution  press  a 
black  stream  of  vulgar  vituperation. 


AN   UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  273 

So  they  defeated  him  at  the  polls  for  the  petty  office  of 
district  attorney,  these  patriotic  business  men,  assisted  by 
the  Southern  Pacific  coterie,  the  gentleman  from  South 
Carolina,  and  the  choice  society  of  the  Tenderloin. 

Although  there  were  comparatively  few  convictions  the 
legal  prosecutions  brought  dire  distress  upon  the  bribers. 
The  disgrace  attending  the  ordeal  seemed  to  affect  them 
less  than  the  cost  in  time  and  money  and  the  possibility 
of  prison  bars. 

Influential  newspapers  were  hired  to  blackguard  good 
men  and  denounce  the  best  measures,  and  when  accused  of 
thus  selling  themselves  made  answer,  "That's  what  we  are 
in  business  for."  New  journals  also  were  established,  so 
that  morning  and  evening  the  high  grafters  heard  recited 
in  sympathetic  tones  their  Iliad  of  woes,  while  issues  of 
vital  importance  to  the  community  were  denounced  with 
vulgar  vehemence  refreshing  to  their  souls.  High  society 
opened  its  arms  to  high  crime,  and  consolatory  feasts  were 
held  at  the  eating-palaces  where  much  wine  made  glad  the 
heart.  Under  the  infliction  a  few  of  the  more  sensitive 
boodlers  fell  away  in  health  and  spirits;  some  languished 
in  prison;  some  were  set  at  liberty  because  of  ill  health, 
for  the  superior  judges  were  generous  as  well  as  just. 

It  was  not  in  sending  criminals  to  prison,  in  greater  or 
less  numbers,  that  constituted  Mr.  Heney's  great  work. 
The  men  of  whom  he  had  the  handling  in  court  were  made 
to  suffer  pretty  severely  as  it  was.  But  it  was  in  rescuing 
the  city  from  the  power  of  selfish  and  evil-minded  men, 
and  in  establishing  a  reign  of  honesty  in  place  of  this  reign 
of  avarice,  and  which  resulted  shortly  afterward  in  the 
complete  purgation  of  the  city  at  the  polls. 

Said  Governor  Folk  of  Missouri,  "We  hear  it  said  that 
your  crusade  here  was  a  failure  because  only  one  or  two 
men  have  been  put  behind  prison  bars.  You  cannot 
measure  the  effect  of  a  fight  such  as  you  have  been  making 
by  the  number  of  men  in  stripes.  It  can  only  be  gauged  by 
the  awakening  of  the  conscience  of  the  people." 


274  RETROSPECTION 

All  through  these  years  of  good  report  and  evil  report, 
while  kind  souls  who  knew  nothing  about  it  were  lamenting 
the  superlative  wickedness  of  San  Francisco,  underneath 
it  all  was  another  influence,  the  influence  of  good  men 
working  for  good  government,  working  without  self-seek- 
ing, without  purpose  of  reward,  walling  to  accept  office  if 
necessary,  but  not  hungry  for  place.  These  both  corpor- 
ate capital  and  the  labor  leaders  opposed,  for  both  were 
willing  to  use  means  for  the  accomplishment  of  their  pur- 
pose of  which  good  government  could  not  approve. 

Capital  claimed  the  right  to  bribe,  to  buy  stolen  goods, 
to  buy  franchises,  the  property  of  the  city,  from  the 
thieves  who  stole  them  from  the  city.  The  labor  leaders 
claimed  the  right  to  coerce,  unlawfully  to  dictate  to  cap- 
ital, to  the  people,  and  interfere  wdth  the  welfare  of  the 
state,  with  prosperity  and  the  growth  of  cities,  and  all 
economic  development.  They  claimed  the  right  to  burn 
and  destroy,  the  right  to  murder  and  maim,  the  right  to 
boycott  and  dynamite. 

Of  such  practices,  whether  of  capital  or  labor,  no  right- 
thinking  man,  no  man  of  honorable  instincts,  of  common 
sense  or  common  decency  can  approve.  Such  practices  no 
community  can  tolerate  and  live.  The  result  until  Hiram 
Johnson  came  was  intermittent  politics,  a  string  of  senators 
and  governors,  in  greater  or  less  degree  subservient  to 
graft  and  bribery  and  misrule,  creatures  cringing  to  the 
Southern  Pacific  railway ;  and  as  for  the  city,  with  now 
and  then  an  exception,  here  a  mayor  thief,  there  a  mayor 
mountebank,  with  beefy  supervisors  and  cheaply  bought 
satellites,  both  capital  and  labor  sat  by  in  shame  gazing 
upon  the  results  of  their  combined  handiwork. 

Ruef  's  career  ran  a  successful  course  for  a  period  of 
ten  years,  and  but  for  Heney  and  Burns  would  in  all  prob- 
ability be  running  now.  Though  the  brightness  of  the 
latter  part  of  it  may  have  been  dimmed  by  the  shadow  of 
potential  prison  bars,  yet  he  had  safely  secured  the  fruits 
of  his  industry,  which  were  so  large  that  even  the  heavy 


AN   UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  275 

drain  attending  his  struggle  for  freedom  could  not  de- 
prive him  of  the  whole  of  them. 

When  he  first  attracted  attention  he  was  in  the  adminis- 
trator's  office  as  assistant.  At  the  time  of  Schmitz's  reelec- 
tion he  was  in  the  full  blaze  of  glory,  yet  soon  to  be  ex- 
tinguished. Intoxicated  with  success,  and  with  what  he 
believed  to  be  political  omnipotence,  he  defied  those  who 
were  laboring  for  civic  honesty,  and  even  attempted  to 
obtain  the  office  of  district  attorney  when  it  became  ap- 
parent that  through  that  office  there  were  to  be  prosecu- 
tions. 

Upon  Ruef 's  conviction  of  bribery  he  was  sentenced  by 
Superior  Judge  Lawlor  to  fourteen  years'  imprisonment. 
Lawlor  was  approached  with  considerable  sums  of  money, 
his  life  was  threatened,  and  leniency  begged  in  person  by 
a  Jewish  rabbi  and  a  Catholic  priest,  but  he  remained 
firm.  The  supreme  court  granted  a  rehearing,  but  re- 
pented under  threats  of  impeachment  by  the  legislature 
then  in  session,  and  Ruef  was  finally  landed  in  the  state 
prison  in  March,  1911. 

Five  years  in  which  to  imprison  a  notorious  felon, 
whose  guilt  was  self-confessed  and  abundantly  proved,  and 
which  would  have  taken  perhaps  five  days  in  England,  is 
a  commentary  on  our  system  of  jurisprudence,  on  the  prac- 
tice in  our  courts,  and  on  the  efficiency  of  our  supreme 
judges  needless  to  discuss. 

Because  among  the  grafters  were  certain  depositors 
whose  interests  were  inimical  to  the  interests  of  the  city, 
the  bankers  made  no  offer  for  the  bonds  of  the  municipal 
railroad  on  Geary  street  when  they  were  placed  upon  the 
market,  nor  would  they  purchase  any  of  them  until  they 
saw  that  if  they  did  not  the  citizens  would  withdraw  their 
deposits  and  finance  the  public  works  themselves.  Thus 
may  be  seen  the  quality  of  banking-house  patriotism. 

When  the  Hetch-Hetchy  municipal  water  bonds  were 
first  offered  there  were  no  bids.  Not  a  single  bank  or  cap- 
italist would  buy,  not  from  any  question  of  validity,  but 


276  RETROSPECTION 

because  of  the  influence  of  corporations  against  the  measure, 
and  because  of  the  indifference  of  moneyed  men  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  city.  "I  get  six  per  cent,  for  my  money  in  New 
York,  and  you  ask  me  to  take  four  and  a  half,"  was  the 
final  argument  of  a  banker  who  had  made  his  every  dollar 
out  of  California. 

"Why  all  this  hubbub  about  a  little  bribing?"  quoth 
the  railway  governor.  "Are  you  not  all  of  you  bribers  and 
bribed  ?  Do  you  not  bribe  your  assessor,  bribe  officials  for 
patronage  and  rulers  for  place?  Do  you  not  even  make 
a  poor  girl  pay  for  the  privilege  of  teaching  in  your  schools, 
and  can  any  laborer  get  employment  on  public  works  who 
will  not  vote  for  the  reelection  of  his  master,  of  all  his 
masters  ? ' ' 

"Pat  is  a  good  fellow,"  says  his  honor  from  the  sunny 
south  who  often  sits  at  meat  with  sinners.  "What's  the 
matter  with  Pat?" 

So  Patrick  felt  safe  that  the  bars  were  up  between  him 
and  San  Quentin  so  long  as  his  friend  sat  upon  the  judicial 
bench.  It  was  annoying  nevertheless;  there  was  always 
the  risk,  however  slight,  and  the  expense,  which  could  not 
have  been  less  than  one  or  two  millions. 

All  the  same,  poor  Pat  toiled  on,  for  he  was  grit  to  the 
back-bone,  even  if  he  was  not  always  happy  in  the  perform- 
ance of  hollow  social  functions.  The  hair  silvered  and  the 
features  wrinkled.  Pat  was  punished,  yet  the  battle  was 
not  altogether  lustreless,  for  still  were  his,  the  stars  with- 
out the  stripes. 

Success  is  the  sine  qua  non.  There  are  various  forms 
and  phases  of  bribery,  but  iniquitous  all.  Buying  votes 
with  money  is  one  way ;  giving  employment  on  public  works 
in  return  for  votes  is  another  way.  Buying  a  legislature 
is  one  way;  a  promise  of  patronage  is  another  way.  It  is 
the  weakest  spot  in  our  republican  government  that  from 
president  to  postman,  from  the  moment  he  gets  himself 
into  place  his  wits  are  set  at  work,  his  resources  conned. 


AN   UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  277 

and  his  forces  marshaled  to  secure  reelection.  Our  worthy 
presidents  will  not  take  money  from  the  federal  treasury 
to  buy  for  themselves  another  four  years  of  blissful  power, 
but  they  will  employ  any  and  all  others  of  the  many  fed- 
eral resources  at  their  command  as  bribes  for  future  favors. 

With  the  new  tyranny,  the  tyranny  of  combined  labor 
following  the  tyranny  of  combined  capital,  comes  a  new 
economic  force  into  American  life,  assuming  the  mastery 
over  all  the  other  economic  forces.  With  this  arrogant  as- 
sumption appear  the  elements  of  hatred  and  revenge,  and 
so  crime  becomes  king. 

All  men  are  criminal  at  heart,  in  greater  or  less  degree, 
and  all  women,  some  as  dark  as  Erebus,  others  as  light  as 
the  seven  thousand  angels  standing  on  the  point  of  a  needle. 

Crime  is  king ;  but  when  a  wicked  ruler  is  deposed  peace 
smiles  again.  Crime  is  king ;  as  a  dog  returns  to  his  vomit 
so  returns  the  evil-minded  to  his  evil  ways.  Rich  and  poor 
alike  lean  toward  wickedness ;  hunger  for  money  draws  the 
one,  hunger  for  bread  the  other.  Other  influences  than 
those  which  nature  and  the  devil  furnish  must  be  employed 
to  change  this  innate  love  of  wrong  into  a  love  of  right  for 
the  sake  of  righteousness,  into  a  desire  to  be  clean  for  the 
love  of  cleanliness,  a  desire  to  be  decent  from  a  preference 
for  decency. 

Crime  is  king.  An  interregnum  of  crime  marks  an 
epoch  in  history.  An  interregnum  of  crime  signifies  placid 
days  and  increase  of  virtue;  signifies  progress  in  all  that 
is  best  and  noblest  in  man.  Crime  is  king,  the  king  of  evil, 
yet  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  human  activity.  It  pro- 
motes inventions,  aids  industries,  and  gives  occupation  to 
idle  hands.  It  sharpens  the  intellect  and  achieves  wealth 
and  distinction.  Palaces  are  reared  to  its  votaries,  and 
armed  attendants  given  them ;  temples  of  justice  arise  and 
lawyers  and  judges  come  forward  to  meet  that  but  for 
which  they  themselves  never  would  have  been  created.  Then 
why  should  not  our  high  priests  of  the  golden  temple  wor- 
ship crime? 
10 


278  RETROSPECTION 

Crime  is  lord  and  overlord.  By  it  the  poor  are  op- 
pressed, capital  coerced,  labor  suborned,  and  strikes  sus- 
tained. By  it  state  favors  are  secured,  special  interests 
promoted,  and  trusts  protected.  By  it  senators  are  made, 
municipalities  managed,  and  a  thousand  sparkling  events 
thrown  round  our  daily  lives.  By  it  the  land  is  filled  with 
churches,  theological  seminaries,  Sunday-schools,  library 
buildings,  and  free  universities.  Then  why  should  not  all 
mankind  worship  crime? 

With  the  advent  of  high  crime  incident  upon  the  civil 
war  came  rapid  changes  in  religious  thought,  eliminating 
the  abstract  forms  of  faith  and  the  cruder  conceptions  of 
eternal  punishment.  The  consequence  was  that  many 
hitherto  of  conscientious  morality  gave  themselves  up  to 
cupidity  and  the  fascinations  of  fast  living. 

We  construe  our  deities  from  their  works  and  their 
agents.  Every  man  is  partly  of  God  and  partly  of  Satan. 
The  devil  incarnate  seldom  shows  himself;  occasionally  wo 
see  Faust  at  the  tail  of  Mephistopheles. 

Thus  crime  increases  in  the  congregations  of  the  right- 
eous, and  from  a  thousand  pulpits  in  the  United  States 
occupied  by  clergymen  in  good  standing  not  a  word  of  con- 
crete censure  is  heard,  for  concrete  wrong-doing  pays  the 
pew  rent.  There  is  but  little  religion  in  the  churches,  and 
that  little  graft  is  strangling. 

Yet  the  good  clergyman  should  not  be  too  severely  cen- 
sured. Like  the  rest  of  us  he  is  under  the  spell,  a  loyal 
subject  of  King  Crime  whose  surname  is  Graft.  He  has  a 
family  and  cannot  risk  the  welfare  of  wife  and  children 
for  a  little  matter  of  conscience.  Nature  cries  louder  than 
the  wounds  of  Christ,  and  is  nearer,  withal,  and  nature 
is  inexorable  and  cruel.  Her  laws  are  a  Juggernaut  car 
rolling  on  indifferent  to  what  it  crushes,  indifferent  to 
happiness,  or  misery,  and  which  may  not  be  evaded  by  any 
howsoever  supreme  technicality. 

The  crop  that  springs  up  from  the  dragon's  teeth  thus 


AN   UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  279 

sown,  what  of  that?  It  is  the  burden  of  this  chapter,  and 
I  am  weak  and  sick  in  the  telling  of  it. 

It  is  a  fine  thing  to  be  rich,  even  though  it  be  stolen 
riches,  even  though  it  is  known  to  be  predatory  wealth,  so 
that  punishment  does  not  ensue.  Men  bow  to  the  thief, 
just  the  same,  and  smile  on  him,  though  beneath  his  cover- 
ing of  cloth  he  feels  himself  filthy.  Women  ogle  him,  his 
pastor  purrs  upon  him,  his  wife  and  daughters  mingle  in 
the  delights  of  high  society.  It  is  his  reward  for  being  a 
moral  leper. 

This  as  to  the  first  sowing  of  the  teeth.  With  the 
second  comes  emulation,  imitation  in  large  and  small  ways. 
The  strong  enough  man  sees  how  he  can  gain  some  millions 
by  illegal  combinations  of  capital,  known  as  mergers,  trusts, 
and  seizure  of  public  domain,  or  other  unlawful  appropria- 
tion of  public  property.  Others  less  capable  or  less  con- 
fident with  humbler  efforts  must  satisfy  themselves  with 
spoils  from  building  contracts,  road-making,  bribing  for  a 
franchise,  or  over-selling  at  double  price  to  a  speculative 
incumbent,  not  to  mention  the  more  plebeian  practices  of 
embezzlement  and  modest  pilferings.  Thus  crime  in  a 
thousand  ways  becomes  as  the  air  we  breathe,  impregna- 
ting the  blood  and  undermining  the  integrity  of  the  com- 
monwealth. 

In  common  with  other  centres  of  population  San  Fran- 
cisco responded  easily  to  the  general  criminal  impulse.  We 
were  common  humanity  like  the  others,  neither  better  nor 
worse,  though  our  ever-increasing  alien  additions  tended  to 
our  grading  downward  rather  than  upward. 

All  the  same,  there  is  good  stuff  in  the  city  yet. 

This  was  at  the  beginning  of  our  dark  age  which  came 
upon  us  gradually.  We  were  ashamed  of  our  wickedness 
at  first,  but  gradually  the  new  men  of  graft  grew  bolder, 
working  meanwhile  upon  the  hitherto  respectable  men  of 
money  until  there  appeared  a  considerable  number  who 
openly  advocated  immunity  for  wealthy  offenders  for  busi- 
ness' sake  while  punishing  poor  criminals  for  example's 


280  RETROSPECTION 

sake;  men  who  love  too  well  to  pose  upon  a  pedestal  of 
their  own  construction  as  protectors  of  finance  and  indus- 
try, and  oracles  as  to  what  should  be  and  not  be,  who  love 
money  dearly  and  have  a  high  regard  for  business  that 
begets  money,  who  uphold  crime  and  call  it  good  for  busi- 
ness, who  would  for  personal  gain  sell  the  city  and  their 
own  souls  and  call  it  prosperity,  who  set  up  a  bastard  moral- 
ity, teaching  circumvention  of  the  law,  holding  that  pros- 
perity is  better  than  purity  and  crime  less  criminal  than 
plain  honesty. 

Likewise  with  a  logic  peculiarly  their  own,  which  says 
that  capital  will  not  come  to  a  city  so  perturbed,  but  pre- 
fers a  place  of  treacherous  repose,  one  of  easy  moral  tone, 
where  immunity  for  any  indirection  may  always  be  pur- 
chased, where  disreputable  houses  may  flourish  under 
special  protection  of  the  police,  where  before  any  profit- 
able investment  can  be  made,  or  franchise  secured,  or  enter- 
prise begun,  or  excessive  taxation  avoided,  toll  to  the  mu- 
nicipal vampire  must  be  paid. 

"Oh,  no!"  finally  exclaims  the  bewildered  capitalist, 
"if  they  punish  criminals  in  San  Francisco  it  is  no  place 
for  me!" 

A  new  doctrine  out  of  economics  this,  which  teaches 
of  that  supersensitive  thing  called  capital,  which  values 
first  of  all  security  and  stability,  that  it  shuns  good  gov- 
ernment and  respectability,  preferring  an  atmosphere  of 
vice  and  crime,  that  it  likes  better  association  with  trick- 
sters and  swindlers  than  with  men  of  conscience  and  right 
doing.  And  for  our  bankers  and  wealthy  citizens  of  honor 
and  good  repute,  let  us  ask,  is  it  not  playing  with  dynamite 
upholding  as  too  many  are  doing  the  attainted  methods  of 
flagrant  malefactors? 

Then  corruption  crept  into  the  counties.  Hitherto  in 
the  country  some  degree  of  purity  was  found.  Simple  and 
single-hearted,  genial,  neighborly,  wishing  well  to  all  and 
evil  to  none,  the  men  of  bucolic  minds  and  direct  manners, 
to  whom  such  terms  as  graft,  interests,  and  the  economics 


AN   UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  281 

of  predatory  wealth  were  as  Sanscrit,  they  could  not  choose 
but  be  honest. 

But  now  a  more  ambitious  outcropping  appeared  in 
the  fields  and  farmyards.  Young  men,  perhaps,  who,  with 
some  smattering  of  knowledge  gained  at  free  universities, 
knowledge  gained  at  the  expense  of  the  state  to  be  em- 
ployed in  making  more  criminals  for  the  state  to  support, 
had  absorbed  the  trickeries  of  the  city  men  in  their  modern 
ways  of  making  money,  and  returning  home  had  applied 
those  methods  to  get  rich  quick  among  their  unsophisticated 
friends,  until  not  a  courthouse  or  a  schoolhouse  could  be 
built,  not  a  patch  of  road  repaired  without  some  portion 
of  the  appropriation  going  into  their  pockets.  Thus  was 
the  cleanliness  of  the  commonwealth  befouled  at  the  foun 
tain,  the  homes  of  purity  polluted,  for  during  the  past 
hundred  years  the  best  elements  of  intellectual  and  material 
development  in  the  city  had  been  drawn  from  the  country. 

In  the  present  atmosphere  of  official  environment  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  escape  the  subtle  influence  of  private 
advantage,  which  may  be  called  bribery  if  you  will,  the 
bribery  of  self-interest,  bribery  for  political  influence, 
bribery  for  securing  or  holding  office. 

Senators  who  buy  their  way  to  Congress  are  themselves 
to  be  bought  when  they  get  there,  and  instead  of  a  govern- 
ment by  the  people  we  have  a  government  by  the  purse. 

Are  we  then,  like  poor  Mexico,  a  republic  in  name  only  ? 

He  laughs  best  who  laughs  last.  Terry  of  Texas  killed 
his  men  but  got  himself  killed.  Casey  killed  King,  but  the 
king  of  killers  was  hard  upon  his  heels.  Ned  McGowan 
achieved  wonders,  but  an  ungrateful  country  sent  him 
away  for  his  country 's  good.  Honest  Harry  Meiggs  dropped 
his  honesty  but  for  a  moment  while  he  could  gather  in  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  of  other  people's  money  and  sail 
away  to  South  America  and  make  a  few  millions ;  but  when 
he  wished  to  return  to  dear  California,  pay  up  and  be 
honest  again,  he  was  flatly  refused  by  the  legislature. 

There  are  many  yet  in  California  who  like  to  live  de- 


282  RETROSPECTION 

cently  and  among  decent  people,  who  believe  in  every  man 
working  for  what  he  gets  and  in  getting  what  he  works 
for.  Those  who  would  get  the  world  did  not  make  it,  or 
work  for  it.  They  are  simply  appropriators  of  the  works 
of  the  Almighty,  or  of  their  fellow  men  of  low  astuteness. 
And  we  wisest  of  living  peoples,  with  the  power  thus  ac- 
quired by  conscienceless  capitalists  inherent  in  us,  permit 
them  thus  to  defy  the  law*  and  join  issue  with  the  govern- 
ment to  the  corruption  of  legislators  and  the  demoraliza- 
tion of  business  standards. 

Ever  since  the  civil  war,  where  the  seeds  of  the  in- 
iquity were  sown,  the  controllers  of  capital  have  become 
more  and  more  open  and  unblushing  in  their  criminal  ways, 
until  they  now  boldly  assert  that  good  business  is  better 
than  good  morals,  and  that  punishment  for  crime  is  for 
the  poor  and  not  for  the  rich. 

Several  causes  united  to  impede  progress  after  the 
fire  of  1906.  The  insurance  money,  amounting  to  $164,- 
000,000,  did  not  all  come  in  for  five  years,  though  most  of 
it  was  paid  the  first  year.  The  panic  of  1907,  owing  to 
financial  conditions  in  New  York,  checked  investments 
from  that  quarter,  while  certain  unpatriotic  bankers  who 
sympathized  with  the  bribers  openly  approved  of  high 
crime  while  professing  good  faith  toward  the  city,  thus 
holding  themselves  up  to  the  scorn  of  all  good  men. 

With  the  rest  came  labor  troubles,  the  teamsters'  strike 
making  possible  the  election  of  Eugene  Schmitz,  who  was 
three  times  chosen  mayor.  The  high  crime  bankers  and 
the  bribing  capitalists  assisted  Schmitz,  and  later  McCarthy 
in  their  elections,  but  opposed  Taylor,  who  was  not  a  man 
to  be  bought.  McCarthy  was  beaten  by  Taylor  in  1907,  but 
was  made  mayor  at  the  next  election.  The  corporate  in- 
terests assisted  the  bankers,  breaking  the  ranks  of  good 
government. 

Many  of  the  owners  of  real  estate  found  themselves 
with  a  vacant  lot  and  an  insurance  policy,  and  nothing  else, 
unless  it  were  a  mortgage.  As  the  insurance  companies 


AN    UNHOLY   ALLIANCE  283 

were  slow  to  pay,  rebuilding  could  proceed  but  slowly.  On 
the  whole,  the  insurance  companies  did  well,  they  did  their 
best.  They  were  severely  stricken.  Against  the  total 
destruction  of  a  city  no  provision  is  made. 

Huge  aggregations  of  wealth  have  become  a  despotism. 
Huge  monopolies  of  labor  have  become  a  despotism.  And 
if  both  are  not  controlled  by  the  people  they  together  will 
grind  the  people  into  dust.  When  the  modern  Moloch  rears 
his  grim  force  in  the  market  place,  the  people  stare ;  when 
the  god  of  intimidation  appears  in  arms  against  the  god  of 
our  fathers,  the  people  shout. 

It  was  a  triumph  second  only  to  Governor  Johnson's 
election  the  defeat  by  Mr.  Rolph  of  P.  H.  McCarthy  as 
mayor  of  San  Francisco.  A  labor  leader  of  the  most  unde- 
sirable type,  the  city  would  have  presented  a  singular  spec- 
tacle at  the  coming  fair,  with  a  chief  magistrate  the  em- 
bodiment of  vulgarity  and  a  gang  of  labor  manipulators 
to  act  as  hold-ups  to  the  nations  invited  hither.  His  former 
election,  like  that  of  the  chief  of  city  spoilers,  Eugene 
Schmitz,  was  due  to  the  moneyed  men  and  corporations, 
who  in  the  Schmitz  election  preferred  an  accomplice  in 
office  to  an  honest  man,  and  in  electing  McCarthy  and  his 
minions,  among  whom  was  an  accommodating  district  at- 
torney, enjoyed  a  sweet  triumph  over  those  whose  prosecu- 
tion of  high  crime,  as  they  claimed,  hurt  business  and  im- 
peded progress. 

They  sickened  of  their  success,  however,  even  though 
they  succeeded  in  setting  bribers  free,  and  they  were  glad 
enough  to  join  the  good  government  forces  in  cleaning 
them  out  when  they  had  no  further  use  for  them.  The 
newspapers,  also,  came  slowly  around  when  they  saw  the 
certainty  of  Rolph 's  election  and  wiped  their  lips,  ready 
once  more  to  sell  themselves  to  the  highest  bidder.  It  was 
due,  the  deliverance  of  the  city,  to  the  long  and  patient 
efforts  of  the  best  citizens  who  preferred  honesty  and  clean 
living  to  crime  and  immorality. 


CHAPTER    XVI 

COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM 

PORFIRIO  DIAZ,  president  of  Mexico,  was  driven 
forth  by  the  populace.  Ask  one  of  them  why,  and  you 
will  get  no  answer ;  he  does  not  know.  Investigate,  and  you 
will  learn  that  the  deposed  president  had  ruled  for  thirty 
years,  that  he  had  continued  himself  in  office  at  first  by 
the  help  of  the  army,  and  later  by  his  inherent  will  and 
power.  At  the  expiration  of  each  term,  directly  or  in- 
directly, he  had  himself  nominated  president,  at  the  same 
time  naming  members  of  congress,  governors  of  states, 
jefes  politicos,  and  all  the  chief  officials  of  the  nation, 
whose  election  following  was  a  form  or  a  farce,  his  alleged 
crime  being  running  a  republic  which  was  a  republic  only 
in  name,  and  preventing  another  from  taking  his  place  and 
doing  worse.  In  a  word,  the  government  was  autocratic, 
and  while  conducted  as  a  republic  it  was  not  a  republic; 
the  sovereignty  of  the  nation  was  not  in  the  people  but  in 
Porfirio  Diaz;  the  administration  was  not  given  to  officers 
elected  by  the  people  and  representing  the  people,  but  to 
Porfirio  Diaz,  elected  by  and  representing  Porfirio  Diaz. 

A  mestizo  of  Oajaca,  Diaz  became  early  the  coadjutor  of 
Benito  Juarez,  also  of  the  state  of  Oajaoa.  Side  by  side, 
one  as  head  of  the  civil  service  and  the  other  as  chief  of 
the  army,  they  fought  first,  after  the  deliverance  of  their 
own  souls  from  ignorance  and  superstition,  for  the  intel- 
lectual emancipation  of  their  country,  and  finally  for  the 
liberation  of  Mexico  from  material  foes,  within  and  with- 
out, from  the  imperialism  of  Lerdo  and  from  their  own  in- 
sidious clergy,  whose  inordinate  love  of  wealth  and  power 

284 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  285 

nothing  short  of  secularization  could  control — the  two 
patriots  triumphing  in  the  end  by  the  overthrow  of  Maxi- 
milian and  driving  Louis  Napoleon's  soldiers  back  to 
France. 

Who  was  Benito  Juarez?  He  was  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable men  of  any  age  or  nation.  A  full-blooded  Ameri- 
ican  Indian,  of  the  Aztec  strain,  he  came  down  out  of  the 
mountains  of  Oajaca  with  a  drover  while  escaping  the  ill- 
treatment  of  an  uncle.  He  could  not  speak  a  word  of 
Spanish,  but  only  his  native  Aztec  tongue.  He  was  a  wild 
waif,  less  than  half  clad,  having  a  bronze  skin  and  matted 
hair,  eleven  years  old,  with  a  face  brightly  illuminated 
with  genius  implanted  by  divine  favor. 

A  priest  picked  him  up,  washed  him,  and  had  him  edu- 
cated for  the  church.  Later,  preferring  the  law,  he  be- 
came chief  justice,  then  governor  of  Oajaca,  then  pres- 
ident of  the  Republic.  That  within  him  was  the  genius, 
the  inspiration  to  deliver  himself  from  the  thraldom  of  his 
environment  and  discern  the  relative  attitudes  of  church 
and  state  to  the  progress  of  mankind,  is  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  examples  in  history. 

For  at  that  time  the  church  in  Mexico  was  omniscient 
as  well  as  omnipotent,  embodying  most  of  the  learning  and 
controlling  most  of  the  wealth  of  the  nation ;  and  here  was 
a  wild  Indian,  caught  and  reclaimed  while  young,  though 
carrying  always  the  imprint  of  his  race  in  the  dusky  skin, 
the  high  cheek  bone,  the  lank  hair  and  piercing  black  eye, 
a  savage  instilled  in  all  the  civilized  superstition  of  the 
time  at  the  feet  of  an  Oajaca  Gamaliel,  his  intellectual 
transformation  resulting  in  the  profound  statesmanship 
which  founded  the  Republic  and  saved  it  from  internal 
strife  and  foreign  invasion — his  deliverance,  I  say,  seems 
a  miracle  akin  to  the  conversion  of  St.  Paul  without  the 
attendant  light  and  directing  voice. 

When  we  see  that  Mexico  owes  its  late  happy  condi- 
tion equally  to  the  two  men,  Benito  Juarez  and  Porfirio 
Diaz,  and  that  one  receives  his  reward  in  honors,  his  statue 


286  RETROSPECTION 

standing  in  many  market  places,  while  the  other  is  driven 
forth  in  ignominy  at  the  hands  of  those  who  envied  him 
his  honors  and  his  place,  we  do  not  feel  our  respect  in- 
creased either  for  the  mestizos  of  Mexico  or  for  the  aliens 
who  now  delight  in  censure  of  that  which  they  so  lately 
praised. 

What,  then,  was  Benito  Juarez,  and  what  was  Diaz? 
The  one  a  wild  Indian  and  yet  a  Washington,  one  who  loved 
his  country,  giving  to  it  the  fruits  of  his  immortal  mind, 
and  died,  taking  no  toll;  the  other  equally  a  patriot  yet 
doomed  to  martyrdom. 

Should  we  deem  it  worth  while  to  institute  comparisons 
between  neighboring  republics  it  is  but  fair  to  consider 
at  the  outset  the  quality  of  humanity  involved,  relatively, 
their  origin  and  environment  or  other  engendering  con- 
ditions. 

It  is  generally  understood  that  republicanism  as  it 
stands  to-day  is  not  a  definite  quantity  but  rather  a  pro- 
gression. The  problem  is  not  yet  worked  out  in  how  far 
this  form  of  government  is  applicable  to  masses  of  man- 
kind of  greater  or  lesser  intelligence.  It  seems  to  us,  citizens 
of  the  greatest  of  republics,  that  the  system  works  well 
where  the  people  are  honest  and  intelligent.  But  if  the 
people  are  sufficiently  honest  and  intelligent  no  govern- 
ment of  any  kind  is  necessary;  and  that  is  the  whole  sub- 
stance of  republicanism,  the  nearest  to  no  government  of 
any  yet  invented. 

Masses  of  mankind,  however,  are  not  all  intelligent  and 
honest,  and  the  more  wild  and  unruly  they  are  the  stronger 
must  be  the  reins  that  control  them.  If  under  long  dis- 
cipline, as  in  England,  the  people  become  tame  and  tract- 
able, the  reins  of  rulership  may  become  as  silken  threads 
and  yet  be  all  sufficient,  though  in  empty  royalty  and  use- 
less aristocracy  there  still  remain  the  hollow  forms  and 
senseless  mummeries  of  an  obsolete  barbarism  which  one 
who  has  tasted  freedom  could  never  adopt. 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  287 

Here  in  the  two  Americas  we  have  the  several  phases 
of  republicanism  thus  far  evolved,  most  of  them  not  yet 
a  century  old,  each  working  itself  out  along  lines  of  its 
own,  independent  of  the  others,  but  all  modelled  upon  the 
matchless  system,  adopted  by  Hamilton  and  Jefferson, 
This,  or  any  other  system  is  and  must  be  modified  to  meet 
the  quality  and  condition  of  the  people  for  whom  it  is 
employed,  and  to  speak  of  this  or  that  one  as  a  republic 
only  in  name  is  to  say  the  least  speaking  vaguely. 

What  is  a  republic  only  in  name,  and  what  a  true  re- 
public, a  republic  not  a  republic  only  in  name? 

Notwithstanding  the  proximity  of  our  sister  republic, 
and  the  long  reign  of  its  late  president  in  the  name  of  re- 
publicanism, Porfirio  Diaz  and  his  Mexican  suzerainty 
have  been  understood  but  by  few.  The  man  has  been 
usually  portrayed  as  a  despot,  his  rule  autocratic,  his  will 
absolute,  his  reelections  a  farce,  his  congress  a  fraud,  and 
his  republic  no  republic  at  all. 

This  is  very  near  the  truth,  but  it  is  not  the  truth.  In 
the  sense  in  which  one  generally  hears  it  spoken  and 
received,  that  is  to  say,  in  an  evil  sense,  it  is  very  far  from 
the  truth. 

During  the  progress  of  my  historical  work  I  made  sev- 
eral visits  to  the  city  of  Mexico  and  saw  much  of  President 
Diaz  and  his  ministers.  I  used  to  meet  them  frequently  in 
their  respective  offices  at  the  palace,  but  I  saw  them  oftener 
at  their  private  residences,  particularly  at  the  house  of  the 
president,  and  at  the  home  of  Romero  Rubio,  father  of 
Mrs.  Diaz.  During  these  visits  from  time  to  time  I  went 
with  General  Diaz  over  his  entire  career,  touching  the 
strings  which  sounded  his  inner  nature,  until  I  came  to 
know  him  well,  and  to  understand  his  idiosyncrasies  and 
aspirations  at  the  beginning,  and  his  hopes  and  endeavors 
toward  the  end.  I  had  every  opportunity  of  studying  the 
man  at  close  range.  And  this  is  what  I  came  to  know,  in 
his  mind  and  heart,  in  public  and  in  private,  that  he  was 


288  RETROSPECTION 

direct  and  sincere  in  all  his  ways,  and  that  he  was  void  of 
avarice  and  cared  little  for  personal  aggrandizement. 
Therefore  when  I  heard  of  his  treatment  at  the  hands  of 
his  people  I  was  shocked,  and  grieved  beyond  measure  over 
the  mistake  the  poor  deluded  mestizos  were  making.  His 
predecessor  in  the  presidency,  Benito  Juarez,  had  served 
four  terms  successively  and  had  died  in  office.  Diaz  not 
only  took  up  the  work  of  Juarez  and  continued  his  reforms, 
but  adding  modern  progressiveness  and  economic  develop- 
ment to  political  regeneration  carried  forward  the  country 
to  a  high  tide  of  prosperity.  Juarez  had  laid  broad  the 
foundation  for  popular  government  following  the  best 
models,  Diaz  proceeded  to  erect  the  superstructure  but 
found  the  material  inadequate.  A  popular  government 
presupposes  people;  there  were  no  people.  There  was  an 
aristocracy  who  would  not  work  but  were  willing  to  gov- 
ern. Then  there  was  the  mozo  or  servile  class;  between 
these  classes  there  was  little  or  nothing  in  the  way  of  re- 
sponsible population. 

The  whole  country  from  mountains  to  seaboard  was 
still  infested  with  highwaymen ;  the  clergy  were  disaffected, 
preferring  imperialism  and  Maximilian,  and  no  secular- 
ization. The  Mexicans,  these  wild  mestizos,  must  be  held 
in  check  and  driven  with  a  tight  rein.  Call  it  despotism  or 
tyranny  if  you  like,  that  is  what  was  wanted;  and  it  was 
the  only  kind  of  government  that  would  save  the  country 
from  anarchy  and  endless  revolutions. 

Even  though  Juarez  had  held  office  through  four  terms, 
Diaz  started  out  with  the  idea  that  the  president  should 
not  succeed  himself.  He  framed  a  law  to  that  effect  and 
at  the  end  of  his  term  gave  his  seat  to  General  Gonzalez, 
a  fellow-soldier  of  the  intervention  war,  coarse,  illiterate, 
self-seeking,  whose  libertinism  debased  morals,  and  whose 
cupidity  kept  the  government  exchequer  empty.  He  was 
always  getting  into  scrapes  and  calling  on  Diaz  to  help 
him  out.  So  frequent  were  these  demands  that  at  one  time 
General  Diaz  kept  a  coach  and  horses  standing  night  and 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  289 

day  at  his  door  ready  to  dash  off  to  the  palace  or  elsewhere 
to  quell  a  riot  or  quiet  the  army  and  so  keep  Gonzalez  on 
his  feet  a  little  longer. 

Long  before  the  time  was  up  Diaz  determined  that  there 
should  be  no  more  of  that  sort  of  government  if  he  could 
prevent  it. 

Meanwhile,  though  not  in  office  he  spent  his  time  work- 
ing for  the  people.  He  promoted  education,  established 
schools,  attended  examinations,  and  gave  out  prizes. 

When  he  assumed  the  presidency  the  country  was  in  a 
state  of  anarchy.  Revolution  was  in  the  cities,  while  the 
country  roads  were  infested  with  highwaymen.  With  a 
strong  hand  he  cleared  the  country  of  robbers  and  revolu- 
tions and  held  it  for  thirty  years  in  a  state  of  peace  and 
prosperity.  He  caught  some  of  the  chief  bandits,  dressed 
them  up  in  bright  new  soldiers'  clothes,  and  sent  them 
forth  well  armed  and  proud  as  peacocks  to  hunt  down  their 
old  comrades  and  clear  the  country  of  them.  In  a  word 
Porfirio  Diaz  has  been  from  first  to  last  his  country's 
benefactor.  He  employed  every  means  at  his  command  to 
elevate  the  people  and  develop  the  resources  of  the  country. 

Rising  from  humble  origin,  he  found  his  country  pov- 
erty-stricken, priest-ridden,  struggling  in  the  grasp  of  a 
foreign  foe;  he  left  it  prosperous,  progressive,  and  happy; 
a  good  government,  an  efficient  army,  and  thousands  of  in- 
dustries flourishing  all  over  the  land.  Where  shall  we  find 
another  such  instance?  Surely  any  form  of  government, 
any  economic  policy  which  produces  such  results  cannot 
be  called  bad.  Under  no  form  of  government  save  ab- 
solutism or  a  republic  in  name  only  could  this  have  been 
accomplished. 

Every  people  will  have  the  sort  of  government  suitable 
to  them.  An  anarchic  or  revolutionary  condition  seems 
best  to  suit  Mexicans;  before  Diaz'  time  they  had  it  and 
will  now  have  it  again. 

We  love  to  interfere  in  the  affairs  of  a  weaker  neighbor, 
to  play  providence,  perhaps  to  play  the  bully  a  little,  and 


290  RETROSPECTION 

watch  for  some  advantage  to  fall  to  us,  like  California,  for 
example,  only  legitimately,  of  course.  So  we  mobilize 
troops  along  the  border  when  they  are  in  trouble,  and  when 
our  boys  who  cross  over  to  take  a  hand  in  the  fight  are 
caught,  the  cry  is  raised  protesting  over  the  just  punish- 
ment of  those  who  thus  leave  their  country  to  stir  up  strife, 
aid  revolution,  or  otherwise  unjustly  intermeddle  in  the 
affairs  of  another. 

In  all  filibustering  expeditions  it  is  the  same,  whether 
William  Walker's  band  of  tatterdemalion  cutthroats  in 
Nicaragua,  or  the  mild  and  courteous  Austrian  prince  with 
the  French  army  and  Mexican  clergy  at  his  back,  or  ad- 
venturers from  the  United  States  assisting  rebels  in  their 
attempt  to  overthrow  the  existing  government,  no  sooner 
are  they  caught  and  a  just  punishment  threatened  than 
protests  and  a  cry  for  mercy  are  raised. 

In  the  case  of  Maximilian,  Secretary  Seward  had  warned 
Louis  Napoleon  that  French  intervention  in  Mexico  would 
not  be  permitted;  that  his  too  palpable  game  of  statecraft 
in  having  at  hand  an  army  of  intervention  for  the  United 
States  as  well  as  for  Mexico,  as  soon  as  the  south  should 
show  sufficient  strength,  would  not  work ;  and  that  as  soon 
as  our  little  misunderstanding  at  home  was  settled  we  would 
look  into  the  matter  of  French  and  Austrian  imperialism 
in  Mexico. 

And  the  French  emperor,  reading  the  signs  of  the  times 
aright,  withdrew  his  army  and  so  saved  himself  trouble. 
He  urged  Maximilian  also  to  withdraw,  but  the  chivalrous 
Austrian  said  no,  he  would  not  desert  his  friends. 

Unfortunately  for  the  captive  Maximilian,  the  edict  had 
been  for  some  time  promulgated  on  both  sides  of  ' '  No  quar- 
ter; death  to  all  prisoners." 

Under  this  edict  the  migratory  republic,  held  together 
by  Juarez  as  president,  had  been  driven  from  the  city  of 
Mexico  with  its  ministerial  supporters,  and  a  few  papers 
and  blank  books  standing  for  the  archives  of  the  nation. 

Juarez  fled  first  to  San  Luis  Potosi,  thence  after  a  brief 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  291 

respite,  he  retired  slowly  toward  the  United  States  bor- 
der at  El  Paso,  to  the  spot  which  to-day  bears  his  name, 
whence  he  might  cross  the  boundary  at  a  moment's  notice 
should  it  become  necessary,  for  capture  he  knew  was  death 
for  himself  and  all  his  associates. 

"Why  then  did  Secretary  Seward,  probably  the  best  and 
brightest  man  that  ever  filled  the  chair  of  state,  why  did 
he,  knowing  that  Louis  Napoleon  was  pledged  to  destroy 
the  American  union  if  once  he  could  get  an  entering  wedge, 
knowing  that  Maximilian  was  pledged  to  kill  Juarez  if  he 
could  catch  him,  why  did  he  raise  his  voice  with  the  others 
for  mercy  on  this  poor  innocent  interloper? 

Oh,  diplomatic  courtesy.  Our  government  must  not  ap- 
pear brutal,  even  to  fiends  or  their  victim ;  besides,  he  knew 
very  well  that  Maximilian  must  die,  and  deservedly  so. 

In  reviewing  affairs  in  Mexico,  past  and  present,  we 
should  not  fail  to  consider  Diaz  the  man  apart  from  the 
Diaz  government.  We  should  not  fail  to  consider,  like- 
wise, the  quality  of  the  people  to  be  governed,  and  their 
condition,  and  the  condition  of  the  country  at  the  time 
Diaz  the  dictator  took  matters  in  hand. 

If  then  we  choose  to  compare  the  republicanism  of  the 
United  States  of  Mexico  with  the  republicanism  of  the 
United  States  of  America,  and  slightly  to  sneer  at  the 
former  as  a  republic  only  in  name,  though  modelled  after 
the  perfection  of  all  republics,  we  may  do  so  intelligently, 
and  derive  such  satisfaction  therefrom  as  we  may. 

"We  shall  see  more  clearly  the  quality  of  humanity  with 
which  George  Washington  and  Alexander  Hamilton  had 
to  deal,  their  inherited  social  forms  and  institutions,  their 
democratic  instincts  and  idiosyncrasies,  their  dominant 
ideals  and  aspirations,  and  realize  more  fully  how  different, 
how  much  more  difficult  the  problem  which  confronted 
Porfirio  Diaz  in  his  attempt  to  achieve  similar  high  results 
along  similar  lines  but  with  base  material.  And  as  we 
understand,  the  sneer  will  turn  to  lines  of  admiration. 


292  RETROSPECTION 

The  ancient  antagonisms  of  English  and  Spanish  speak- 
ing peoples  followed  their  respective  colonists  to  the  New 
World.  The  Spanish  American  cannot  tell  you  why  he 
hates  the  Yankee;  the  Yankee  thinks  he  knows  why  he 
despises  Spanish  intermixtures  of  whatsoever  degree  of 
duskiness. 

The  former  thinks  mainly  of  what  he  fears  and  envies, 
superior  strength  of  mind  and  accomplishment;  the  latter 
regards  with  disfavor  a  union  of  weakness  and  arrogance. 
Were  they  weak  like  the  wholly  black,  or  shrewd  like  the 
wholly  white,  they  might  be  more  endurable;  but  from  a 
proper  understanding  of  the  respective  colonial  develop- 
ments, and  of  the  later  republican  experiments,  one  was  as 
far  away  as  the  other.  What  we  have  chiefly  to  consider 
is  the  present  emergency,  and  the  further  unhappy  involu- 
tions which  are  destined  to  follow  in  the  further  attempts 
at  republicanism,  or  dictatorship,  in  respect  to  ourselves 
and  others. 

Three  centuries  of  viceregal  rule  in  America,  following 
ten  centuries  of  despotism  in  Europe;  this  for  heredity 
and  environment  as  applied  to  the  Spanish  portion  of  the 
Mexican  make-up,  which  with  the  endless  native  American 
intermixtures,  gave  Diaz  the  material  with  which  to  estab- 
lish a  government  by  the  people,  a  wild,  turbulent,  human- 
ity characterized  by  ignorance  and  fanaticism. 

The  Anglo-Americans  of  Washington's  day,  they  and 
their  forebears,  had  spent  their  centuries  in  efforts  for 
democratic  institutions  and  political  and  religious  liberty. 
They  knew  and  were  prepared  to  determine  truth  from 
error,  and  to  establish  a  government  upon  the  broad  prin- 
ciples of  equal  rights  to  all.  There  was  no  field  in  the 
world  better  prepared  for  the  planning  of  pure  republi- 
canism than  the  English  colonies;  there  were  few  worse 
places  for  the  experiment  than  Latin  America. 

There  was  no  middle  course  possible  for  Diaz  in  Mexico; 
his  rule  must  be  absolutism  pure  and  simple,  a  despotism 
of  brute  force,  or  republicanism  only  in  name.  He  could 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  293 

not  choose  the  former,  as  he  had  just  fought  against  any 
sort  of  imperialism,  foreign  or  domestic;  besides,  he  did 
not  believe  in  arbitrary  rule,  even  in  arbitrary  republi- 
canism, any  further  than  the  necessities  of  the  case  de- 
manded. This  is  clearly  proved  by  the  law  he  formulated 
at  the  beginning  of  his  reign,  to  the  effect  that  no  president 
should  succeed  himself,  which  law  he  was  forced  to  rescind 
after  giving  it  a  trial. 

There  had  always  been  a  lack  of  confidence  between 
the  executive  and  legislative  departments,  both  before  and 
after  the  rule  of  Herrera,  which  rendered  the  strictly  re- 
publican form  of  government  impracticable.  It  must  be 
arbitrary  government  or  anarchy,  and  obviously  absolute 
rule,  without  the  means  of  its  enforcement,  was  not  to  be 
found  among  the  law-makers;  hence  the  army  must  be 
utilized. 

Look  at  the  two  republics  as  they  stand  to-day,  Amer- 
ican and  Mexican,  their  institutions,  their  new  inheritance, 
their  present  environment.  Both  have  changed  won- 
derfully, both  have  wonderfully  increased  in  wealth,  in- 
telligence, and  industrialism.  The  American  people  have 
greatly  increased  in  number  and  have  deteriorated  in  civic 
morality  and  honesty.  The  Mexican  people  have  not  in- 
creased as  much  in  numbers,  but  have  improved  more  in 
morals. 

The  Americans  have  lost  in  patriotism;  they  have  lost 
in  their  respect  for  the  past  and  their  pride  in  the  future. 
The  Mexicans  have  gained  in  knowledge,  in  economic  and 
military  efficiency,  and  in  accomplishments,  both  practical 
and  ornamental. 

I  have  no  sneer  for  Mexico,  nor  for  the  government  of 
Porfirio  Diaz,  howsoever  called,  so  long  as  the  cardinal  fact 
stands,  that  Mexico  has  been  making  great  strides  forward 
while  the  United  States,  save  for  the  time  and  influence 
of  Theodore  Roosevelt,  has  been  changing  for  the  worse, 
changing  from  Anglo-Saxon  to  alien,  changing  morally 
from  honesty  to  high  crime. 


294  RETROSPECTION 

That  it  was  the  more  difficult  task,  the  one  undertaken 
by  Diaz  few  will  deny ;  that  he  carried  it  forward  success- 
fully for  a  period  of  thirty  years  the  republic  itself  bears 
witness  to-day;  that  it  was  as  base  as  it  was  unprofitable 
driving  him  forth  in  ignominy  the  present  condition  of 
things  amply  testify.  And  times  will  be  worse  there  before 
they  are  better.  That  Mexico,  tamed  by  prosperity,  and 
restless  under  a  long  peace,  now  seeks  the  excitement  that 
leads  to  anarchy  all  who  know  the  people  are  forced  to 
admit. 

Furthermore,  as  Washington  was  the  father  of  British 
freedom  as  well  as  American  independence,  so  Diaz  estab- 
lished the  Monroe  doctrine  for  Spanish  America  as  well  as 
the  deliverance  of  his  own  country  according  to  its  declara- 
tion. 

It  is  not  the  part  of  a  noble  nature  to  prey  upon  the 
adversities  of  a  great  man.  It  is  not  the  part  of  a  noble 
nation  so  readily  to  forget  in  his  declining  years  the  work 
of  Porfirio  Diaz  for  civilization  and  the  welfare  of  the 
human  race. 

Has  our  republicanism  reached  such  a  state  of  perfec- 
tion that  we  can  reasonably  cast  opprobrium  upon  any  gov- 
ernment that  best  accomplishes  what  is  best  for  the  people  ? 

It  is  intended  that  republicanism  should  be  a  govern- 
ment by  the  people.  Is  this  the  case  with  us?  If  the 
people  rule,  then  we  might  ask,  what  people?  Not  the 
better  element  in  our  commonwealth.  It  may  be  dem- 
agogues and  politicians  at  one  time,  and  at  another  special 
interests  and  the  money  power,  the  labor  leaders  putting 
in  an  unwholesome  appearance  at  all  times,  but  never  has 
the  government  been  made  up  by  the  best  men  fairly 
chosen  by  the  people. 

Will  any  one  who  knows  pretend  to  say  that  republi- 
canism such  as  we  imagine  our  own  to  be  would  have  secured 
better  results  in  Mexico  during  the  past  thirty  years  than 
that  secured  by  the  rule  of  Porfirio  Diaz? 

The  only  question  I  should  like  here  to  ask  is  not  how 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  295 

far  we  are  from  a  happy  state  of  true  republicanism,  but 
how  much  better  administered,  if  at  all,  has  been  the 
United  States  of  America  under  Taft  than  the  United 
States  of  Mexico  under  Diaz ;  and  how  can  we  justly 
assail  our  neighbor,  as  so  many  of  us  like  so  well  to  do, 
with  all  our  imperfections  upon  us.  What  single  act  of 
Diaz  is  more  open  to  ridicule  and  just  censure  than  that  of 
a  president  abandoning  his  official  duties  and  making 
junketing  trips  about  the  country  at  the  expense  of  the 
people  to  secure  his  own  reelection  and  defeat  his  former 
benefactor?  How  have  we  the  face  to  slur  a  sister  re- 
public as  a  republic  only  in  name,  to  impute  it  to  her  as  a 
crime,  and  half  sanction  the  inroads  of  malodorous  Amer- 
icans who  cross  the  border  to  fight  against  the  very  prin- 
ciples that  lie  at  the  foundation  of  their  own  government, 
namely,  the  right  to  rule  rightly? 

In  our  settlement  with  the  south,  after  the  civil  war, 
barbarous  Mexico  would  hardly  have  been  as  barbarous 
as  were  we,  nor  so  impolitic  as  to  give  the  franchise  to 
four  millions  of  manumitted  African  slaves. 

Nor  would  the  republic  only  in  name  have  permitted  in 
its  midst  an  oligarchy  of  industrialism,  the  rise  of  special 
interests  to  seize  and  appropriate  to  their  own  use  the 
natural  wealth  of  the  nation,  to  buy  and  sell  legislatures 
and  debauch  the  government.  At  no  time  during  the  late 
dictatorial  rule  in  Mexico  would  have  been  possible  the 
ultra  charitable  proceedings  in  Congress  and  the  presiden- 
tial amiability  in  relation  to  prominent  politicians,  called 
statesmen  sometimes,  under  indictment  for  high  crim- 
inality. 

The  dictator  president  of  the  republic  only  in  name 
would  never  have  submitted  to  the  trifling  with  justice 
which  is  becoming  so  common  throughout  the  United 
States. 

The  dictatorship  of  Diaz  in  Mexico  was  a  good  govern- 
ment, the  best  possible  for  that  people,  and  one  of  the  best 
in  the  two  Americas.  The  cloak  of  republicanism  thrown 


296  RETROSPECTION 

over  it  exerted  little  influence  for  good  or  ill,  other  than 
to  reconcile  the  people  to  what  sometimes  might  otherwise 
be  deemed  arbitrary  measures. 

If  in  its  democratic  incipiency  the  rulers  of  Mexico  did 
not  realize  the  impossibility  of  a  republic  without  a  people, 
of  true  republicanism  or  a  government  by  the  people  in  the 
absence  of  a  people  capable  of  self-government,  they  did 
not  hesitate  twice  to  decline  imperialism,  once  in  the  per- 
son of  Iturbide,  and  again  when  Maximilian  came.  If  they 
could  not  at  once  achieve  perfect  republicanism  they  would 
at  least  hold  to  the  form  while  laboring  to  accomplish  the 
fact. 

Are  we  prepared  to  say  that  our  government  is  the 
best  in  the  world,  that  republicanism  is  the  best  form  of 
government  for  any  people  save  those  who  want  no  govern- 
ing and  therefore  no  government?  Are  we  prepared  to 
say  that  our  government  as  at  present  administered  tends 
to  develop  the  highest  moral  and  political  ideals?  Are  we 
prepared  to  say  that  the  associates  of  Taft  were  better 
men,  more  high-minded,  patriotic,  honest,  or  decent  than 
the  associates  of  Diaz?  Are  we  not  prepared  to  say  that 
in  some  respects  our  government  is  rotten  to  the  core,  and 
will  fall  in  pieces  if  decay  is  not  arrested? 

Is  boss  rule  better  republicanism  than  the  republi- 
canism of  Diaz?  Is  a  government  by  railroads  for 
railroads  better  republicanism  than  the  republicanism  of 
Diaz?  Is  a  government  by  high  crime  for  high  crime  bet- 
ter republicanism  than  the  republicanism  of  Diaz?  Is  the 
domination  of  the  industrial  interests  of  the  country  by 
self-seeking  demagogues  to  the  subversion  of  law  and  lib- 
erty better  than  the  arbitrary  rule  of  one  good  man?  Is 
Madero  and  anarchy  preferable  to  Diaz  with  peace  and 
prosperity  ?  Then  wherein  consists  the  superiority  of  a 
republic  not  a  republic  in  name  only  over  a  republic  which 
is  a  republic  in  name  only? 

Had  Porfirio  Diaz  committed  as  many  blunders  as  have 
been  perpetrated  by  our  pure  republican  presidents  and 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  297 

legislators  since  the  civil  war,  as  the  cruelties  and  injustice 
of  the  reconstruction  period,  the  enfranchisement  of  the 
negroes,  the  prostitution  of  American  politics  and  citizen- 
ship by  the  admission  without  limit  of  low  incendiary 
Europeans  while  excluding  harmless  and  useful  Asiatics, 
of  permitting  corporate  capital  to  usurp  the  government 
and  intimidate  the  people,  of  allowing  special  interests 
and  personal  greed  to  appropriate  and  destroy  the  nation's 
wealth  and  resources,  of  tamely  submitting  to  the  tyran- 
nies of  labor  leaders,  their  boycotting,  strikes,  dynamiting, 
maiming,  and  murdering,  spending  long  sessions  white- 
washing into  place  bribing  senators  and  incompetent  or 
peccable  ministers,  and  a  score  of  other  like  infamies,  we 
might  with  more  reason  disparage  a  nation  of  half  civil- 
ized mestizos  as  a  republic  in  name  only. 

Diaz  controlled  Mexico;  no  one  can  truthfully  say 
that  he  ruled  in  the  interest  of  Diaz  and  not  in  the  interest 
of  Mexico.  Six  interests  controlled  by  five  men  own  the 
United  States;  can  any  one  truthfully  say  that  these  in- 
terests were  worked  for  the  benefit  of  the  United  States 
rather  than  for  the  benefit  of  the  five  men?  Can  it  be 
true  then  that  the  United  States  of  America  is  a  republic 
only  in  name? 

"We  do  not  realize  how  great  a  part  of  us  is  sham.  Con- 
sider, for  example,  the  presidential  pose,  as  he  mounts  the 
presidential  car  on  his  homeward  journey  to  vote,  a  jour- 
ney the  cost  to  the  people  of  which  would  buy  the  suffrages 
of  one  thousand  of  our  worthy  African  citizens.  Our  once 
grand  old  republican  party  is  doomed.  Its  death  is  near. 
It  deserves  to  die.  It  is  rotten  to  the  core,  gangrened  be- 
yond reclaim.  Its  decadence  began  with  the  death  of  Lin- 
coln when  the  south  killed  their  best  friend.  To-day  it  is 
composed  of  and  harbors  and  defends  the  worst  element 
in  the  community,  and  though  backed  by  the  predatory 
press,  whose  columns  are  filled  with  lies  and  vulgar  vitu- 
peration, it  fails  for  the  most  part  to  elect  its  tools  to  office. 
For  the  fiat  has  gone  forth  that  this  abomination  must  be 


298  RETROSPECTION 

destroyed,  and  upon  the  debris  shall  arise  a  nobler  struc- 
ture of  purer  proportions  and  brighter  promise  than 
any  which  has  yet  appeared  in  a  republican  govern- 
ment. 

Less  than  two  years  before  his  fall  the  foremost  states- 
men of  other  nations  were  crying  up  Porfirio  Diaz  as  the 
greatest  statesman  of  any  nation,  having  accomplished  the 
greatest  work  of  any  living  man.  Now  all  are  mute  save 
only  those  who  seem  not  to  recognize  the  difference  between 
statesman  and  revolutionist. 

A  nice  mess  they  have  made  of  it,  Madero  and  his  crew, 
as  any  one  knowing  Mexico  could  and  did  foretell.  Shallow- 
brained  Americans  with  the  others  howled  upon  Diaz  as 
he  was  hustled  out  of  the  country  for  the  great  crime  of 
running  a  republic  which  was  a  republic  in  name  only. 
Now  they  may  try  once  more  the  other  kind,  which  means 
internal  strife  and  anarchy  perhaps  for  another  half  cen- 
tury. 

When  too  late  to  serve  the  nation  only  by  way  of  ex- 
ample, the  character,  the  strict  and  true  hearted  integrity, 
and  the  earnest  patriotism  of  Porfirio  Diaz  will  be  seen 
and  understood,  and  the  man  valued  at  his  true  worth. 

He  could  not  boast  like  Juarez  of  pure  native  blood,  un- 
contaminated  by  any  European  intermixture,  yet  he  rose 
from  his  low  estate  to  the  highest  in  the  nation,  and  won 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  all  the  nations  of  Christen- 
dom. 

Prosperity  sometimes  presents  difficult  problems.  It 
is  with  nations  as  with  individuals,  inordinate  wealth  be- 
gets luxury  and  laziness,  from  which  come  disease  and 
death.  Caught  in  the  throes  of  overweening  prosperity  the 
United  States  of  Mexico  fell  on  evil  times;  the  United 
States  of  America  is  heading  in  the  same  direction  though 
along  different  lines. 

At  the  present  moment  the  best  people  of  the  best  com- 
munities are  working  as  for  their  lives  for — what?  For 


COMPARATIVE   REPUBLICANISM  299 

honest  and  fair  republicanism.  They  are  fighting  graft, 
high  crime,  financial  and  industrial  despotism,  fighting 
evils  which  threaten  to  strangle  all  that  is  best  in  our  other- 
wise happy  land.  They  will  be  known  in  coming  politics 
as  the  Progressive  party. 

Porfirio  Diaz,  in  his  enforced  resignation  from  office 
and  flight  from  his  native  land  presents  one  of  the  most 
pathetic  figures  in  history.  As  it  is  written,  "Many  good 
works  have  I  shewed  you  from  my  Father;  for  which  of 
these  works  do  ye  stone  me?" 

We  have  been  told  before  that  republics  as  well  as 
princes  are  ungrateful.  All  Mexico  kicks  the  carcass  of 
the  dead  lion  whose  gentle  roar  so  lately  sent  them  shiver- 
ing, while  among  the  baser  sort  of  our  own  republic  are 
found  those  to  yap  them  on. 

Call  it  despotism  if  you  like.  It  is  a  high  and  holy 
despotism,  a  despotism  for  the  well-being  of  the  people,  a 
despotism  which  might  beneficially  be  served  in  moderate 
doses  even  to  our  own  model  republic,  a  live  impulse,  a 
factor  for  good  which  should  put  to  shame  the  senseless 
mummeries  of  effete  monarchies  such  as  Europe  delights  in. 

The  simple  mandate  of  this  good  despot  filled  the 
offices  of  states  and  federation  with  good  men,  while  in  our 
own  less  favored  land  millions  of  money  must  be  spent  in 
electing  legislators  to  invent  laws  riveting  still  tighter  the 
bonds  of  a  despotism  of  licentiousness. 

The  success  of  the  Madero  insurrection  incites  other 
insurrections,  and  political  and  industrial  revolutions  is 
now  as  it  was  before  the  time  of  Juarez  and  Diaz,  the  nor- 
mal condition  of  things. 

On  the  day  that  Diaz  was  driven  forth  there  was  no 
better  befitting  government  in  the  world  than  his,  none 
more  honest  or  patriotic.  . 

Why? 

Because  it  best  met  the  necessities  of  the  situation;  be- 


300  RETROSPECTION 

cause  it  was  the  only  sort  of  government  that  could  rule 
an  unruly  people;  because  Diaz  was  absolutely  honest  and 
patriotic. 

Revolutionists  took  up  the  sword,  drove  out  Diaz  and 
took  his  place;  now  therefore  it  will  be  many  days  before 
the  sword  shall  depart  from  the  house  of  Madero,  or  an- 
archy from  the  republic  of  Mexico. 

Under  the  thirty  years  of  the  so-called  despotic  rule  of 
Porfirio  Diaz,  Mexico  emerged  from  a  state  of  mediaeval 
anarchy,  advanced  along  lines  of  highest  development  and 
prospered,  intellectually  and  economically,  as  few  nations 
have  ever  prospered.  Anarchy  is  again  at  hand,  the  prod- 
uct of  a  selfish  and  brutalizing  despotism  such  as  never 
soiled  the  garments  of  Porfirio  Diaz. 

And  now  as  if  to  emphasize  the  foregoing  words,  writ- 
ten before  the  meeting  of  the  Republican  convention  at 
Chicago  in  June,  1912,  come  the  disgraceful  proceedings 
of  that  memorable  occasion.  To  see  a  big  fat  bovine  leave 
the  presidential  seat  and  go  bellowing  about  the  country 
for  votes  was  bad  enough,  but  when  his  followers,  dishon- 
orable leaders  of  a  once  respectable  but  now  thoroughly 
corrupt  party,  resort  to  the  vilest  means,  in  wrhich  thievery 
and  low  swindling  are  most  conspicuous,  to  foist  upon  the 
people  a  ruler  which  they  do  not  want,  there  is  scant 
criticism  left  for  Diaz  or  any  of  the  republican  govern- 
ments of  Spanish  America.  And  as  for  the  heroes  of  this 
high  achievement,  they  may  return  to  their  homes  with 
the  brazen  front  and  sickly  smile  of  their  leader,  yet  no 
one  knows  better  than  themselves  of  the  moral  leprosy  they 
carry  beneath  their  raiment. 

For  neither  in  Mexico  nor  in  any  other  country  was 
there  ever  a  greater  farce  or  fraud  perpetrated  in  the  name 
of  republicanism.  The  whole  course  of  action,  deliberately 
planned  and  unscrupulously  executed,  in  which  trickery 
and  robbery  played  the  most  conspicuous  parts,  was  such 
as  should  brand  the  Taft  manipulators  with  eternal  infamy. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

EVOLUTION   OF  A  LIBRARY 

PROVIDENCE,  free-will,  and  necessity  were  the 
phrases  a  hundred  years  ago;  we  now  say  evolution, 
which  sounds  if  less  orthodox  more  progressive.  What  we 
mean  by  them  does  not  so  much  matter,  as  it  makes  little 
difference  what  one  believes  as  long  as  one  can  never  know 
anything  about  it.  Spencer  and  Browning,  after  Savon- 
arola and  Kant,  dive  deep  below  the  surface  workings  of 
Shakespeare  and  Goethe,  and  revel  in  subconscious  under- 
souls  until  lost  to  themselves  and  others. 

Which  means  that  I  hardly  know  what  started  me  off 
collecting  books — trash,  my  clerks  used  to  call  them,  as 
they  were  the  sort  that  never  would  sell — me,  a  west-coast 
trafficker  in  books,  handling  them  as  one  handles  bricks, 
not  for  the  knowledge  but  for  the  profit  in  them. 

Stuff  such  as  one  might  expect  to  find  in  a  waste- 
basket,  or  on  the  scuttle  of  coal  with  the  wood  to  kindle 
the  fire;  this  at  the  beginning;  later  this  refuse  would 
fetch  its  weight  in  gold. 

I  did  not  think  of  that,  however,  at  the  time,  but  only 
that  it  might  be  worth  something  sometime,  vaguely,  or 
idiotically,  as  my  aforesaid  clerks  would  have  expressed 
it,  had  they ,  dared,  surmising  a  possible  intrinsic  value — 
in  any  event  like  Toodles'  coffin,  'andy  to  'ave  in  the  'ouse. 

I  suppose  I  was  a  crank,  if  indeed  I  am  not  one  still. 
I  do  not  know  what  a  crank  is,  though  I  should  prefer  hav- 
ing to  tell  what  it  is  than  what  it  is  not,  because  as  we  are 
assured  everybody  is  a  little  queer. 

As  the  work  of  gathering  the  Bancroft  Library  was 

301 


302  RETROSPECTION 

long,  I  will  make  this  account  of  it  short,  though  the  in- 
volving thereof  continues,  and  let  us  hope,  like  Bryan  in 
search  of  a  presidency,  that  this  collecting  may  run  on 
forever. 

Well,  then,  I  began  in  1858  by  bringing  together  all  the 
books  I  could  find  in  my  stock  on  California,  extending 
my  territory  later  to  the  north-west  coast,  finally  taking 
in  the  western  half  of  North  America  from  Alaska  to 
Panama,  including  the  whole  of  Mexico  and  Central  Amer- 
ica. I  searched  both  continents  several  times  over  for  his- 
torical material. 

I  purchased  every  book,  map,  and  manuscript  written 
or  printed  within  my  chosen  territory  or  elsewhere  relat- 
ing to  it. 

I  made  many  visits  to  southern  California  and  Spanish 
America,  keeping  employed  there  a  score  of  copyists  for 
a  number  of  years  in  the  California  and  Mexican  missions 
and  national  archives.  I  sent  copyists  to  Alaska  and  St. 
Petersburg  for  the  same  purpose.  In  my  business  jour- 
neys east,  in  New  York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia,  I  kept 
an  eye  open  for  anything  and  everything,  good  or  bad,  re- 
lating to  my  subject  and  not  already  on  my  shelves,  for 
there  are  few  books  out  of  which  one  cannot  get  some  good ; 
and  it  was  easier  and  cheaper  to  buy  outright  and  let  time 
and  use  determine  the  value,  than  to  stop  to  investigate 
while  purchasing  as  to  whether  the  thing  was  worth  buying 
or  not. 

I  studied  the  Mormons  at  Salt  Lake,  the  Mexicans  at 
the  lakes  of  Tenochtitlan,  the  Hudson  Bay  people  in 
British  Columbia,  and  the  early  Oregon  pioneers  by  their 
jubilee  camp-fires.  Crossing  the  Atlantic  I  visited  many 
times  the  capitals  and  universities  of  Europe,  my  agents 
attending  the  public  and  private  sales.  All  this  inter- 
mingled with  business  and  writing  history  for  a  period  of 
fifty  years,  and — that  is  all. 

At  least,  that  will  suffice  for  a  skeleton;  there  can  be 
as  many  volumes  employed  as  one  likes  in  the  filling  in. 


EVOLUTION   OF   A   LIBRARY  303 

I  never  was  greatly  given  to  fads  at  any  time,  least  of 
all  during  these  early  days  when  it  required  the  closest 
attention  to  business  to  escape  disaster.  Yet  surely  at 
first  it  could  have  been  nothing  more  to  me  than  a  passing 
fancy,  this  picking  up  and  preserving  historical  data  in- 
trinsically valuable  though  of  no  present  utility. 

As  the  collection  steadily  grew  in  volume  and  value, 
that  which  at  first  may  have  been  a  fad  became  a  fixity, 
and  I  found  myself  wondering  what  I  should  do  with  it, 
though  I  had  no  thought  of  ceasing  to  collect.  When  after 
a  decade  of  this  drifting,  amid  many  fluctuations  of  mind 
as  to  potentialities  and  purposes,  I  found  myself  seated  at 
a  table  writing  history.  The  work  of  collecting  then  as- 
sumed more  definite  shape,  as  besides  continuing  the 
original  ingathering  in  a  general  way,  there  were  innumer- 
able gaps  to  be  filled  which  required  special  work.  It  was 
not  long,  therefore,  before  I  found  my  work  proper  inter- 
rupted by  what  proved  to  be  in  the  end  a  series  of  historical 
journeys  to  various  parts  at  various  times. 

English  society  in  the  colonies  is  more  democratic  than 
the  democratic  societies  of  an  earlier  day.  It  is  so  refresh- 
ing for  a  time  to  be  free  from  the  stifling  atmosphere  of 
insular  monarchy,  with  its  attendant  paraphernalia  of 
lords  and  ladies,  of  fighting  men  and  gospellers,  each  with 
a  like  train  of  subservients,  and  all  receiving  their  lunar 
glory  from  some  bedizened  George  or  William. 

At  Victoria  with  my  stenographers  in  1878,  the  old 
servants  of  the  Hudson  Bay  company,  chief  factors  and 
chief  traders  as  well  as  the  early  settlers,  explorers  and 
missionaries  came  from  a  distance  to  see  me.  They  seemed 
to  realize  the  importance  of  my  efforts,  and  were  quite  par- 
ticular to  have  their  life  work  set  down  correctly,  some- 
times quarrelling  with  each  other  to  the  verge  of  combat 
over  the  validity  of  a  date  or  incident,  so  that  finally  in- 
stead of  receiving  them  together  I  admitted  them  singly. 

Sir  James,  chief  factor  and  governor,  had  passed  away 


304  RETROSPECTION 

before  my  visit,  but  Lady  Douglas  was  in  evidence,  always 
attended  by  some  of  her  relatives,  but  so  bleached  by  civili- 
zation as  scarcely  to  be  recognized  as  an  American  abor- 
iginal. 

Why  is  it  that  England  is  so  much  better  served  by  her 
distant  agents  than  the  United  States  is  served  whether 
at  home  or  abroad?  One  can  doubtless  account  for  some 
part  of  it  but  not  for  all.  First,  England  rewards  and 
punishes  more  promptly.  Spain  was  badly  served,  even 
in  her  best  days;  she  seldom  rewarded,  but  was  quick  in 
punishing,  often  inflicting  the  penalty  before  the  offense. 

It  was  a  difficult  position,  and  Sir  James  filled  it  with 
credit,  that  of  acting  at  once  for  the  fur  company  and  for 
the  government  during  the  transition  period  from  chartered 
traders  to  a  provisional  government,  the  interests  of  the 
former  being  to  hold  the  country  in  savagery  fit  for  fur- 
hunting  as  long  as  possible,  while  the  inrush  of  gold- 
hunters  was  forcing  open  the  wilderness  to  English  occupa- 
tion. 

Lady  Douglas  placed  at  my  disposal  her  late  husband's 
papers,  while  Governor  Richards  and  the  then  chief 
factor  of  the  Hudson  Bay  company  gave  me  access  to  their 
respective  archives. 

A  church  of  England  missionary  to  the  Cariboo  country 
spent  a  month  with  me  here,  a  month  of  midnights,  or  say 
the  thirty  and  one  nights,  as  he  came  to  me  only  at  night, 
remaining  usually  till  break  of  day,  talking  clearly,  elo- 
quently, and  continuously,  interrupting  himself  only  by 
sipping  brandy  and  water,  which  seemed  to  brighten  rather 
than  befog  his  brain  as  the  night  wore  on.  He  was  one  of  the 
best  and  purest  of  men,  and  his  fascinating  recitals  proved 
an  invaluable  contribution  to  the  history  of  that  period. 

The  hospitality  I  was  obliged  to  extend  to  the  fur  com- 
pany's officials  and  old  settlers,  usually  in  the  form  of 
whiskey  and  gin,  in  order  to  attract  them  to  my  rooms, 
proved  too  much  for  their  pugnacious  dispositions,  and 
brought  to  a  close  our  intercourse. 


EVOLUTION   OF   A  LIBRARY  305 

Sir  Matthew  Begbie  was  a  boy  on  the  playground  but 
the  stern  chief  justice  on  the  bench.  I  sat  in  his  court 
through  one  or  two  criminal  cases,  and  it  was  refreshing 
the  freedom  from  cant,  browbreating,  and  pettifogging  so 
common  in  some  places.  Justice  Begbie  would  permit  no 
trickery  or  trifling;  least  of  all  was  he  disposed  to  search 
for  technicalities  to  defeat  the  ends  of  justice.  Once  only 
during  my  presence  in  his  courtroom  did  he  feel  called 
upon  to  reprove  a  counsel,  but  this  he  did  in  no  slight 
measure.  "I  cannot  understand,  sir,  how  you  have  the 
temerity  to  offer  before  any  respectable  tribunal,  for  the 
consideration  of  any  judge  whom  you  can  accredit  with 
common  sense,  to  say  nothing  of  legal  acumen,  such  non- 
sense as  you  have  interwoven  in  your  argument.  Let  us 
have  no  more  of  it." 

On  my  way  down  the  coast  I  saw  some  of  Seattle's 
people,  the  old  chief  having  departed  for  his  heavenly 
hunting-ground,  and  also  the  white  men  who  had  held  early 
intercourse  with  him. 

Entering  Oregon  at  that  day  from  either  side  was  like 
coming  into  another  country.  Portland  was  more  like  an 
eastern  city  than  any  in  California.  There  were  present 
many  New  York  and  New  England  people,  orthodox  re- 
ligionists, congregationalists  and  methodists  largely,  over- 
flowings from  the  economic  efforts  of  the  Willamette  val- 
ley missionaries.  For  public  spirit  and  integrity  the 
merchants  and  bankers  of  Portland  had  nowhere  their 
superior,  while  the  newspaper  press  was  truthful  and  ef- 
ficient, more  so  then  than  later. 

A  pleasant  custom  in  vogue  were  the  camp-fire  rendez- 
vous of  the  early  immigrants  and  their  families  every  year 
at  Salem,  where  a  week's  life  in  the  open,  with  talking  and 
dancing,  was  a  whole  year's  solace  to  their  souls. 

There  was  an  intelligent  Russian,  Ivan  Petrof,  who 
came  to  my  Library  out  of  the  civil  war,  whom  I  found 
useful  and  on  the  whole  faithful. 


306  RETROSPECTION 

He  translated  into  English  all  my  Russian  material, 
that  being  the  only  language  in  my  Library  that  required 
such  service. 

It  is  quite  remarkable  the  Slavonic  aptitude  for  acquir- 
ing languages.  When  he  went  into  the  war  this  man  could 
not  speak  a  word  of  English;  before  he  left  the  army  he 
was  writing  letters  home  for  American  soldiers  who  were 
either  disabled  or  had  never  learned  to  write. 

I  had  a  little  Pole  also, — he  said  he  was  a  nobleman  at 
home,  he  called  himself  Nemos  in  my  library, — who  was 
never  at  a  loss  in  any  language.  Another  skilful  linguist 
was  Alphonse  Pinart,  a  Frenchman,  the  son  of  a  Paris 
banker,  a  noted  savant,  and  the  author  of  several  ethno- 
logical works.  He  spent  several  years  roaming  through 
Mexico  and  Central  America  picking  up  priceless  treasures 
from  the  monks  and  others,  making  the  most  unique  collec- 
tion of  any  except  Andrade's,  and  which  was  finally  joined 
to  my  own  and  passed  over  with  it  to  the  university  of 
California. 

When  charged  to  his  face  with  a  knowledge  of  fifty 
Indian  languages,  Pinart  would  not  deny  it.  Why  should 
he?  He  spent  one  winter  in  Alaska  living  in  the  under- 
ground house  of  an  Eskimo,  studying  the  origin  of  the 
Indians.  He  came  down  to  San  Francisco  satisfied. 
' '  They  came  over  from  Asia, ' '  he  said  with  a  sober  counte- 
nance. 

How  many  times  we  have  seen  this  same  farce,  and 
similar  ones  elsewhere,  enacted  by  college  professors  and 
members  of  learned  societies  sent  out  by  rich  men  whose 
money  might  thus  gain  for  them  a  cheap  reputation  for 
scientific  tastes,  the  learned  men  and  their  wealthy  patrons 
alike  failing  to  see  the  absurdity  of  telling  out  of  hand  the 
origin  of  the  American  Indians. 

In  the  Bancroft  Library  at  Berkeley  is  a  book  entitled 
Origen  de  los  Indios,  giving  some  forty  or  fifty  theories 
promulgated  by  learned  men  of  various  ages  and  nations 


EVOLUTION   OF   A  LIBRARY  307 

as  to  the  whence  and  wherefore  of  these  aboriginals,  which 
are  so  like  each  other  yet  so  unlike  any  other  race. 

As  it  is  a  question  which  never  can  be  answered,  it  is 
like  the  diving  anywhere  into  the  unknowable  and  coming 
up  with  a 'dogmatic  answer  which  must  put  an  end  to  con- 
troversy. 

When  the  doctor  taps  on  your  chest,  puts  his  ear  to 
your  back,  tweaks  your  nose,  and  then  speaks  out  boldly 
and  loud,  "The  trouble  with  you,  Sir,  is  ticdouloureux, " 
who  shall  dare  to  gainsay  him? 

Consider  the  claim  set  up  so  elaborately  by  Lord  Kings- 
borough  in  his  nine  mammoth  folios  which  cost  him  his 
mind  and  his  fortune,  and  afterward  adopted  by  the  Mor- 
mons, that  all  the  aboriginal  tribes  of  North  and  South 
America  were  Jews,  that  is  to  say  the  veritable  ten  lost 
tribes  of  Israel  or  may  be  wanderers  upon  the  dispersion 
from  the  tower  of  Babel. 

This  theory  is  susceptible  of  greater  elaboration  than 
any  other,  not  because  these  savages  were  more  like  the 
Jews  than  any  other  people,  but  because  there  is  more  of 
early  manners  and  customs  in  the  Hebrew  writings  than  is 
found  elsewhere  regarding  any  other  people. 

Some  say  the  native  Americans  were  Irish,  or  English, 
or  Scandinavians  who  crossed  over  to  America  by  way  of 
Iceland  and  Greenland,  and  we  know  that  the  Norseman 
did  make  such  voyages  at  an  early  period. 

Some  maintain  that  the  Indians  came  from  Portugal; 
some  say  Italy,  others  Asia;  some  maintain  that  they  came 
from  Africa,  and  others  from  any  and  every  quarter  of  the 
earth,  and  who  shall  say  that  it  was  not  so  or  that  they 
were  not  autochthonic  in  their  origin  ? 

It  scarcely  requires  the  penetration  of  a  French  savant, 
or  a  Columbia  college  professor,  to  decide  that  the  Aleuts 
and  Esquimos  came  from  Asia,  when  one  can  see  them  any 
day  crossing  Bering  strait  in  their  bidarkas  or  skating 
across  on  the  ice. 


308  RETROSPECTION 

True,  the  Eskimos  skirt  the  north  pole ;  they  are  a  race 
by  themselves  and  the  only  one  in  all  the  two  Americas 
not  related  to  the  Indians.  But  if  the  Eskimos  can  cross 
so  freely,  surely  the  rest  of  the  world  can  do  the  same. 

Further,  we  have  found  in  these  later  times,  far  below 
the  strait  of  Bering,  Japanese  junks  wrecked  on  the  coast 
of  California,  and  the  Chinese  and  South  Sea  islanders 
could  easily  enough  follow  the  trade  winds  from  point 
to  point  across  the  ocean  to  Mexico  or  to  South  America. 
But  first  of  all  it  should  be  shown  that  they  had  come  from 
Europe  or  Asia,  or  the  old  world  at  all,  or  that  America 
herself  is  not  the  old  world  sending  over  Abraham  and 
Lot  to  people  Palestine. 

This  sort  of  learning  is  like  the  good  clergyman 's  answer 
to  the  question  some  one  put  to  him  as  to  what  evidence 
there  is  of  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  He  said  he  had 
noticed  that  what  men  ardently  longed  for  they  usually  ob- 
tained, and  as  they  all  wanted  to  live  forever  they  would 
probably  do  so.  The  answer,  no  doubt,  satisfied  his  congre- 
gation, but  what  did  he  himself  think  of  it? 

But  perhaps  some  of  us  do  not  want  to  live  forever, 
having  had  quite  enough  of  it  in  this  world.  And  how 
about  Satan  who  longed  ardently  to  rule  in  heaven,  and 
so  many  of  his  followers  who  want  so  much  to  be  healthy, 
wealthy,  wise,  powerful,  and  so  on;  and  why  should  we 
die  at  all  if  ardently  desiring  perpetual  life  would  give  it 
us?  True,  Rockefeller  ardently  longs  for  all  the  oil,  and 
as  he  secured  the  most  of  it  he  must  be  near  heaven  and 
happy.  The  truth  is  our  parson  had  no  shadow  of  evidence 
to  offer  but  did  not  like  to  say  so. 

Simple  facts,  however,  do  not  satisfy  latter-day  in- 
vestigators, who  perforce  must  dive  into  the  depths  of  pro- 
fundity and  stir  up  the  dregs. 

Quite  different  was  my  work  in  the  south,  in  California, 
Mexico,  and  Central  America,  though  the  object  was  the 
same,  to  gather  and  garner  further  knowledge,  but  more 


EVOLUTION   OF   A  LIBRARY  309 

especially  to  fill  gaps  in  the  material  for  my  history  such 
as  would  enable  me  to  give  continuous  narratives  of  per- 
sons, places,  and  things. 

I  went  to  General  Vallejo,  at  Sonoma,  with  a  hundred 
questions  which  he  could  answer  better  than  any  one  else; 
to  some  of  them,  indeed,  no  one  else  could  give  an  explana- 
tion. He  was  not  communicative  at  first.  The  Hispano- 
Californians  of  that  day  fancied  themselves  ill-treated  by 
the  Americans,  and  they  were  not  far  from  right. 

The  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  upon  the  cession  of 
the  California  country  guaranteed  the  rights  of  property 
to  all  the  inhabitants.  The  proper  thing  for  the  United 
States  government  then  to  have  done  was  to  appoint  a  com- 
mission, have  the  occupied  lands  surveyed  and  titles  estab- 
lished, the  government  assuming  the  burden  of  proof. 
Instead,  the  owners  were  called  upon  to  come  forward  and 
prove  their  titles.  This  they  could  not  do.  Many  of  them 
had  received  no  written  deed  with  their  grant.  Boundaries 
were  loosely  defined,  and  witnesses  were  difficult  or  im- 
possible to  obtain.  Lawyers  were  called  in,  and  long  and 
expensive  investigation  followed.  The  usual  fee  for  secur- 
ing to  the  occupant  a  title  was  half  of  the  land,  while  with 
a  bill  of  extras  he  might  easily  sweep  up  the  other  half,  so 
that  many  of  the  Mexican  families  lost  their  all;  while  he 
was  not  much  of  a  lawyer  in  those  days  who  had  not  a 
Mexican  grant  in  his  pocket,  the  title  to  which  his  client 
had  paid  for. 

It  was  then  and  for  this  alleged  purpose,  namely,  the 
quieting  of  titles  to  pueblo  and  mission  lands  and  Mexi- 
can grants,  that  the  archives  of  all  the  missions  and  pueblos 
were  ordered  sent  to  the  United  States  surveyor  general's 
office  at  San  Francisco,  where  all  papers  appertaining  to 
the  matters  in  hand  were  retained,  and  the  remainder  re- 
turned. Three  hundred  bulky  volumes  were  the  result  of 
this  gleaning  and  collating,  and  so  valuable  were  they  for 
my  history  that  I  felt  it  necessary  to  have  the  information 

they  contained  ready  at  hand  for  use  in  my  library. 
11 


310  RETROSPECTION 

I  could  not  borrow  the  volumes,  as  it  would  be  irregular 
for  them  to  be  out  of  the  surveyor  general's  office,  and  I 
could  not  use  them  at  arm's  length.  So  I  rented  a  room 
adjoining  those  of  the  surveyor  general,  who  kindly  con- 
sented to  consider  the  volumes  while  there  and  under  his 
control  as  still  in  his  office.  In  this  room  I  placed  a  dozen 
kitchen  tables  and  chairs,  and  at  them  as  many  Mexican 
copyists  and  epitomists.  This  work  I  gave  in  charge  to 
Mr.  Savage,  my  most  valued  expert  in  Mexican  mustiness, 
who  went  carefully  through  the  mass  of  documents,  mark- 
ing some  to  be  copied  entire,  some  to  be  partially  copied, 
and  others  to  be  epitomized.  These  copies  were  then  bound 
together,  after  proper  classification,  into  some  seventy 
volumes,  I  think  it  was.  This  work  not  only  satisfied  my 
historical  requirements,  so  far  as  these  archives  were  con- 
cerned, but  was  most  important  as  a  public  benefit  in  safe- 
guarding the  contents  of  this  collection  in  case  of  the 
destruction  of  the  original  papers  by  fire. 

I  say  that  General  Vallejo  and  all  the  Spanish  Cali- 
fornia families  were  shy  of  Yankee  protestations  and  sin- 
cerity of  purpose,  and  such  was  the  influence  of  this  man 
that  I  could  hope  to  do  but  little  with  his  countrymen  while 
he  held  aloof.  I  must  therefore  win  him  over  by  some 
means. 

I  found  myself  obliged  to  lay  diplomatic  siege  to  this 
whilom  guardian  of  the  frontier;  the  result  would  de- 
termine my  success  or  failure  with  the  whole  fraternity  of 
grant  holders  of  historic  lore  from  San  Francisco  bay  to 
San  Diego. 

With  me  at  this  time  in  my  army  of  assistants  was  a 
sporty  Italian,  sharp  in  feature  and  slight  in  stature,  lithe 
as  a  cat  and  as  tricky  as  Ruef  upon  occasion,  though  I  must 
say  that  he  always  proved  true  to  me.  True,  poor  fellow! 
except  on  one  occasion,  when  he  killed  himself  because  of 
inability  to  meet  his  obligations  in  mining-stock  specula- 
tions without  acquainting  me  of  his  intentions.  He  surely 
knew  that  I  would  help  him  through  if  he  would  confide 


EVOLUTION   OF   A   LIBRARY  311 

his  troubles  in  me,  as  aside  from  the  value  of  his  services  I 
had  a  strong  liking  for  the  fellow,  for  he  was  a  winsome 
little  rascal;  but  death  cancels  debt  and  covers  dishonor; 
at  least  that  is  the  Latin  idea  of  it,  and  a  foolish  one  it  is. 

Cerruti  was  his  name,  General  Cerruti  he  called  him- 
self; said  he  had  been  consul-general  in  Central  America, 
had  been  engaged  in  numberless  revolutions  there,  from 
one  of  which  he  had  fled  for  his  life  to  San  Francisco,  and 
turned  himself  up  in  my  library. 

After  a  formal  visit  of  a  day  and  a  night  at  Sonoma, 
and  the  return  of  it  by  the  whole  Vallejo  fraternity  in  a 
six  weeks'  stay  at  my  house  in  San  Francisco,— it  was  the 
way  of  these  innocents,  ask  one  and  they  all  came  to  the 
last  of  the  cousins  and  aunts,  and  to  terminate  the  festivities 
I  had  to  be  called  away  on  important  business.  After  all  these 
courtesies  and  blandishments,  as  the  old  general  still  re- 
mained evasive  if  not  obdurate,  I  turned  the  matter  over  to 
the  Italian,  who  opened  the  campaign  by  making  love  to 
two  of  the  general's  daughters. 

The  battles  of  the  general — consul-general — hero  of  a 
hundred  revolutions,  his  adventures  by  devious  ways,  would 
fill  a  volume,  and  are  given  at  some  length  in  my  Literary 
Industries;  suffice  it  to  say  here  that  in  due  time  he  brought 
round  the  other  general — commandante-general — in  fine 
style,  making  of  him  from  that  time  forth  one  of  my  most 
devoted  disciples.  Cerruti  spent  a  year  with  him  exclu- 
sively, most  of  the  time  at  Monterey,  writing  a  Historia  de 
California  by  M.  G.  Vallejo,  in  five  volumes,  folio,  covering 
the  time  from  the  author's  first  appearance  in  the  country 
— he  was  born  in  California  in  1800 — to  the  year  1847. 

The  two  generals  meanwhile  had  converted  Governor 
Alvarado,  and  a  similar  Historia  de  California  was  written 
out  for  him,  and  bearing  his  name.  Many  others  of  the 
early  California  families  up  and  down  the  coast,  all  of  the 
important  ones,  were  visited  by  Cerruti  and  Vallejo,  also 
later  by  Mr.  Savage  and  others  of  my  corps,  which  re- 
sulted in  a  harvest  of  dictations  and  documents,  the  Vallejo 


312  RETROSPECTION 

collection  alone  amounting  to  fifty  large  volumes  with 
thousands  of  important  original  documents. 

It  is  not  my  intention  here  to  enter  into  details  regard- 
ing the  development  of  my  library,  for  say  what  I  might 
I  never  could  give  an  adequate  impression  of  the  labor  per- 
formed during  these  years  of  bibliographic  obsession,  the 
days  of  intricate  endeavor  and  nights  of  anxiety ;  wherefore 
let  it  pass. 

Still  continuing  my  role  as  collector  of  books  in  detail, 
even  to  the  minutest  scrap  containing  valuable  informa- 
tion, I  became  a  collector  of  libraries,  securing  at  least 
twenty  other  important  collections,  and  twice  as  many 
minor  ones,  notably  that  of  Senor  Don  Jose  Fernando  Ra- 
mairez,  eminent  state  and  federal  judge  of  the  city  of 
Durango  and  president  of  the  emperor  Maximilian's  first 
ministry,  in  which  were  many  rare  and  costly  books  and 
unpublished  manuscripts;  that  of  E.  G.  Squier,  United 
States  minister  to  Central  America,  and  author  of  several 
important  ethnographical  works  and  books  of  travel;  that 
of  Elwood  Evans,  lawyer  and  litterateur  of  Olympia, 
Puget  Sound,  and  author  of  an  unpublished  manuscript 
History  of  Oregon  which  came  in  with  the  collection ;  that 
of  Mr.  Pinart,  the  distinguished  Americaniste  before  men- 
tioned, that  of  M.  G.  Vallejo  in  his  house  at  Sonoma  not 
included  in  his  gatherings  with  Cerruti;  that  of  Benjamin 
Hayes  of  San  Diego,  formerly  district  judge  at  Los  Angeles, 
and  collector  of  historical  data  since  long  before  the  advent 
of  the  Anglo-Americans;  that  of  Isaac  Bluxome,  executive 
officer  of  the  two  great  popular  tribunals,  the  San  Fran- 
cisco vigilance  committees  of  1851  and  1856,  his  identity 
being  hidden  in  the  dread  signature  "33  Secretary,"  the 
collection  consisting  mainly  of  the  archives  and  papers  and 
manuscripts  pertaining  to  the  vigilance  committees;  that 
of  Manuel  Castro,  an  able  and  efficient  officer  on  the  Mexican 
side  in  the  war  for  the  Anglo-American  conquest  of  Cali- 
fornia and  the  Bear  Flag  movement,  and  consisting  almost 
entirely  of  valuable  papers  and  manuscripts,  nearly  all  of 


EVOLUTION   OF   A   LIBRARY  313 

them  in  Spanish ;  those  of  several  of  the  Hudson  Bay  com- 
pany's  posts  in  British  Columbia  and  Alaska,  being  chiefly 
papers,  narratives,  and  fur- trading  annals  in  the  great  north- 
west ;  that  of  Caleb  Gushing,  being  selections  from  his  col- 
lections sold  by  auction  in  Boston  in  1879;  that  of  Don 
Juan  Osio,  formerly  judge  and  governor  of  Lower  Cali- 
fornia, and  author  of  an  unpublished  historical  dissertation, 
throwing  much  light  on  times  and  events  of  which  there 
is  no  other  existing  record;  that  of  Sir  James  Douglas, 
Hudson  Bay  company's  governor  of  British  Columbia, 
containing  among  other  valuable  manuscripts  the  unpub- 
lished adventures  of  John  Stuart,  at  Stuart  Lake,  and 
Simon  Fraser  in  his  descent  of  Fraser  river;  that  of  the 
French  Abbe  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  resident  of  Spanish 
America  for  twenty-five  years,  and  author  of  several  works 
on  Mexico;  that  of  Placido  Vega,  general  commanding  un- 
der President  Juarez  during  the  French  intervention,  con- 
sisting of  public  and  private  documents;  that  of  Thomas 
0.  Larkin,  United  States  consul  at  Monterey  prior  to  the 
acquisition  of  California,  the  collection  consisting  of  a  large 
and  very  valuable  mass  of  documents  and  records  of  of- 
ficial correspondence  during  the  important  period  from 
1844  to  1849;  Russian  material  from  Innokentie,  metro- 
politan of  Moscow,  lohan  Veniaminof,  missionary  to  the 
Aleuts,  Admiral  Liitke,  and  Etholine,  formerly  governor 
of  the  Russian  American  possessions;  these  and  many 
others,  all  of  them  being  collections  made  by  prominent 
and  educated  personages,  mainly  from  their  love  of  litera- 
ture and  appreciation  of  the  value  of  historical  data  which 
but  for  them  would  have  been  forever  lost. 

Most  important  of  all  was  the  Maximilian  library,  a 
collection  made  by  Don  Juan  Andrade  during  a  period  of 
thirty-eight  years  of  continuous  effort,  drawn  largely  from 
the  monks  and  monasteries  of  Spanish  America,  and  sold 
or  to  be  sold  to  the  Maximilian  government  as  the  founda- 
tion of  an  imperial  library  of  Mexico.  Upon  the  death  of 
the  unfortunate  emperor,  fearing  lest  his  books  should  be 


314  RETROSPECTION 

seized  by  the  incoming  powers  and  the  results  of  his  life 
labor  be  lost,  Andrade  hurried  them  off  to  Vera  Cruz  on  the 
backs  of  200  mules,  and  thence  to  Leipsic,  where  they  were 
sold  by  auction,  my  agent  purchasing  some  6,000  volumes 
of  the  rarest  and  most  precious  books  and  manuscripts 
relating  to  my  subject  in  existence. 

Thus  it  is  seen  that  my  collection  is  not  the  work  of  one 
man  alone,  but  of  many  men,  working  in  widely  separated 
fields,  each  unknown  to  the  others,  but  all  to  the  same  end, 
the  massing  of  early  historical  data  covering  an  area  equal 
to  one- twelfth  of  the  earth's  surface,  and  whereon  is  now 
being  planted  a  civilization  second  to  none  the  earth  has 
ever  seen. 

All  this  time  there  was  carried  on  a  constant  ingather- 
ing from  many  different  sources.  With  abundant  means 
at  my  command,  and  the  disposition  to  employ  them  in 
what  had  ere  this  become  a  most  absorbing  occupation,  I 
was  able  to  accomplish  in  a  brief  half-century  what  no 
government  or  society  would  have  accomplished  in  ten 
centuries,  that  is  to  say  what  otherwise  never  would  have 
been  accomplished.  Besides  the  ancient  lore  brought  forth 
from  nooks  and  corners,  every  book  relating  to  the  subject, 
published  in  any  language  in  any  part  of  the  world,  was 
immediately  purchased  and  placed  on  my  shelves. 

At  the  best  a  collector,  whether  of  books,  coins,  or  china, 
whether  of  railroads,  banks,  oil  fields,  or  iron  mines,  is  a 
creature  sui  generis.  He  may  be  a  benefactor  of  the  race, 
or  a  fool,  or  both,  and  none  the  less  benefactor  because 
fool,  none  the  less  genuine  because  a  sham,  because  he 
fancies  he  is  deceiving  all  the  world  while  deceiving  only 
himself. 

With  the  wealthy  collector  of  curios  and  painting  the 
impelling  force  is  usually  vanity  pure  and  simple,  the  de- 
sire to  be  credited  with  taste  or  discernment  which  he  does 
not  possess.  Banks  and  railroads  may  be  gathered  in  from 
love  of  power  or  from  cupidity;  to  try  to  get  all  the  oil  or 
all  the  iron  is  greed. 


315 

A  bibliomaniac  invests  a  book  with  a  personality  not 
discernible  by  the  world  at  large.  There  are  those  who 
will  steal  a  book  who  will  not  steal  money. 

One  does  not  give  $50,000  for  a  bible  to  read  when  a 
fifty  cent  one  has  better  print;  and  why  should  the  Bed- 
ford library  fix  the  price  of  Fox's  Book  of  Martyrs,  con- 
taining John  Bunyan's  autograph,  at  only  $440,000  when 
the  valuers  might  as  easily  have  written  down  $880,000. 

It  is  not  true  that  a  thing  is  worth  all  it  will  fetch,  and 
will  not  be  so  until  the  more  rabid  collectors  shall  have 
passed  away. 

If  I  may  here  summarize  the  salient  points  in  this 
fascinating  labor  of  collecting  I  will  therewith  close  this 
chapter. 

The  opportunity  will  never  again  occur  for  securing 
so  large  an  amount  of  material  regarding  a  region  of  such 
wide  extent, — one-twelfth  of  the  earth's  surface, — at  so 
early  a  period  of  its  history. 

I  was  on  the  ground  and  began  operations  late  enough 
for  history  to  have  begun,  but  not  so  late  that  I  could  not 
learn  all  that  had  occurred  from  the  beginning.  It  is  easily 
understood,  therefore,  that  as  all  these  several  concurring 
conditions  will  never  again  appear  simultaneously,  so  no 
other  country  can  ever  have  a  similar  labor  performed  in 
its  behalf. 

It  is  not  probable  such  an  undertaking  would  ever  be 
accomplished  by  a  public  institution,  because  to  be  effective 
it  must  be  begun  at  or  near  the  beginning  of  history,  and 
prosecuted  with  enthusiasm  and  vigor  continuously  without 
regard  to  cost  of  time  or  money  for  a  long  period  of  years. 

Elaborate  work  was  also  done  in  the  way  of  originating 
or  creating  material  wherever  such  a  course  was  deemed 
advisable.  The  time  for  this  was  opportune.  There  were 
throughout  this  vast  area  hundreds  of  prominent  men  mak- 
ing history,  each  in  his  own  way  and  in  his  own  locality, 
and  many  of  these  experiences,  personally  or  through 


316  RETROSPECTION 

agents  or  employes,  I  wrote  down,  taking  their  words  from 
their  own  mouth,  thus  bringing  their  narratives  into  my 
collection  in  the  form  of  manuscript  dictations. 

Some  of  these  manuscripts  covered  but  a  few  pages, 
others  filled  several  volumes.  Indeed  whole  histories  were 
sometimes  written  in  this  way,  where  the  personage  and 
the  period  were  deemed  of  sufficient  importance,  as  in  the 
case  of  Vallejo,  before  mentioned,  and  Juan  B.  Alvardo, 
last  Mexican  governor  of  Alta  California,  each  writing,  in 
Spanish,  at  the  hand  of  an  amanuensis  furnished  by  me, 
an  independent  work  from  his  own  point  of  view. 

Such,  briefly  are  some  of  the  ways  and  means  by  which 
this  remarkable  collection  of  American  historical  data,  and 
this  series  of  written  histories  have  come  into  being.  It 
can  now  readily  be  understood  what  would  have  been 
difficult  to  make  plain  at  the  beginning  of  this  narration, 
namely : — 

First,  that  this   collection   contains   more   of   original 
American  historical  data  than  any  other  library  in  existence. 
Second,   that  it  is  not  only  the  largest  collection  of 
original  American  historical  data  in  the  world,  but  without 
this  collection  no  other  collection  can  ever  hope  to  equal  it. 
Third,  that  no  collection  of  equal  magnitude  was  ever 
before  made  by  a  single  individual,  at  such  cost  of  time  and 
money,  or  with  equal  care,  thoroughness,  and  discrimina- 
tion. 

Fourth,  that  no  state  or  nation  in  the  world  has  had  its 
early  annals  so  gathered  and  preserved  as  has  thus  been 
done  for  the  states  and  nations  of  western  North  America. 
Fifth,  that  this  being  a  collection  of  purely  west-Ameri- 
can historical  material,  and  the  collections  of  others 
working  in  the  same  field  for  the  first  half-century  and 
more  of  national  existence  being  merged  by  purchase  into 
this  collection,  obviously  there  is  little  left  elsewhere  for 
another  to  gather,  no  millions  of  money  being  able  to  re- 
produce it  or  to  purchase  another  like  it. 

It  is  not  too  much  to  claim  that  my  historical  writings 


EVOLUTION   OF   A   LIBRARY  317 

have  doubled  the  value  of  this  collection,  and  the  collec- 
tion largely  increases  the  value  of  the  history,  as  in  the 
way  of  notes,  references  and  indexes  it  has  made  possible 
the  handling  of  the  whole  mass,  or  any  portion  of  it,  by 
future  students  and  investigators,  for  the  innumerable 
purposes  which  will  arise  in  the  future.  In  other  words, 
the  history  compelled  me  to  index  the  whole  library,  thus 
making  it  at  once  available  to  the  individual  scholar  as  well 
as  to  a  corps  of  literary  workers. 

Apart  from  its  value  as  literary  data,  its  practical  use- 
fulness has  already  been  manifested  in  determining  ques- 
tions of  fact  involving  large  public  and  private  property 
interests. 

"With  pardonable  pride  Calif ornians  may  ever  regard 
these  treasures.  Since  the  days  of  the  early  Egyptians 
men  have  collected  books  and  made  libraries,  searching  the 
world  over  and  vying  with  each  other,  men  with  men 
and  nations  with  nations,  to  have  the  largest  and  best,  and 
yet  here  in  California,  during  the  brief  period  of  our  ex- 
istence, in  these  most  important  particulars  we  have  out- 
stripped them  all. 

Thus  it  may  be  seen  that  a  great  library  is  not  like  a 
Carnegie  building  obtainable  to  order;  it  is  not  a  work  of 
creation  but  of  development.  It  is  not  an  article  of  brief 
manufacture  but  of  long  continuous  growth,  springing  up 
of  ttimes  spontaneously,  and  flourishing  in  the  sunshine  per- 
haps, or  it  may  be  hidden  in  the  shade.  Nor  may  the  term 
great  be  restricted  to  bulk  alone.  Money  will  quickly  buy 
in  London  books  enough  to  fill  an  ocean  liner,  and  though 
the  mass  of  printed  matter  were  great  it  could  in  no  sense 
be  rightly  called  a  great  library.  On  the  other  hand,  a 
collection  of  books  made  systematically  and  thoroughly 
along  intelligent  lines  for  a  well-defined  and  praiseworthy 
purpose,  at  the  cost  of  a  lifetime  of  labor  and  the  requisite 
amount  of  money,  may  truly  be  called  great,  though  the 
number  of  volumes  thus  brought  together  be  not  more  than 
enough  to  half  fill  that  same  ocean  liner. 


318  RETROSPECTION 

Neither  is  an  empty  building  a  library,  howsoever  deeply 
graven  in  stone  over  the  portals  the  words  may  be  which 
so  affirm  it.  The  way  certain  founders  of  libraries  have 
of  late  of  erecting  a  building,  giving  to  it  the  name  desired, 
and  then  leaving  it  to  time  and  chance  to  supply  the  books 
if  not  actually  dishonest  is  not  praiseworthy.  The  collection 
usually  made  under  such  circumstances,  beginning  with  gov- 
ernment reports  and  garret  emptyings,  and  ending  in  dime 
contributions  and  tea  sociables  is  hardly  worth  the  housing. 
In  the  formation  of  a  library,  common  sense  and  common 
honesty  would  say  spend  ten  dollars  for  good  books  and 
one  dollar  for  housing  them,  rather  than  the  reverse. 

In  1883  I  erected  on  Valencia  street  a  fire-proof  library 
building  and  moved  my  collection  into  it,  since  which  time 
the  Bancroft  building  on  Market  street,  whence  it  was  taken, 
has  been  twice  burned  to  the  ground  while  the  library 
still  lives.  Later  the  collection  passed  to  the  University  of 
California,  at  Berkeley,  where  it  has  found  permanent 
lodgment. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

METHODS  OF  WRITING  HISTORY 

EADUALLY  as  the  historical  material  relative  to 
western  North  America  grew  upon  my  hands  I  be- 
gan to  think  more  and  more  of  its  ultimate  disposition.  I 
began  to  feel  that  the  original  incentive,  of  which  indeed 
there  had  been  but  little,  would  scarcely  justify  the  ever- 
increasing  proportions  which  the  fad  or  fancy  had  assumed. 
If  I  had  drifted  into  the  affair  merely  to  see  how  many 
marbles  I  could  get,  I  began  to  think  that  I  had  about 
enough,  all  that  my  pockets  would  hold. 

I  considered  for  a  time  putting  my  gathered  informa- 
tion into  encyclopedic  form,  of  making  what  might  serve 
as  a  Pacific  Coast  supplement  to  any  or  all  American  or 
European  publications.  I  spoke  to  several  of  my  friends 
about  it,  and  even  went  so  far  as  to  decide  in  my  own  mind 
whom  I  should  have  for  editor  to  take  charge  of  the  work 
and  become  responsible  for  its  accuracy,  and  what  persons 
there  were  I  might  avail  myself  of  for  his  collaborators; 
but  I  finally  dismissed  the  idea  as  one  not  sufficiently  sat- 
isfying. 

Then  I  thought  of  establishing  a  great  daily  newspaper, 
to  be  placed  upon  a  plane  above  any  other  in  America,  one 
which  should  deal  in  truthfulness  and  honorable  endeavor, 
and  eschew  pretense,  vituperation,  and  every  shade  of 
blackmail.  I  thought  I  could  see  a  way  in  this  of  making 
good  use  of  my  library  in  having  always  at  command  the 
sources  of  multiform  enterprise  as  well  as  the  developments 
of  the  day. 

I  would  choose  for  my  aim  the  best  European  model, 

319 


320  RETROSPECTION 

say  The  Times,  of  London,  modernized,  made  American, 
or  better  Californian,  the  old  Thunderer  but  defossilized. 
I  sounded  several  persons  upon  the  subject,  and  my  project 
leaked  out,  when  presently,  not  at  all  to  my  chagrin,  for  I 
was  by  no  means  sure  of  my  .footing,  I  found  that  others 
had  stepped  in  and  appropriating  my  plans  were  getting 
ready  to  do  the  work.  Not  long  afterward  The  Times  news- 
paper, with  a  facsimile  heading  of  the  London  Times,  was 
started  in  San  Francisco.  It  ran  for  five  months  when  it 
collapsed. 

More  and  more  the  desire  to  achieve  results  grew  within 
me.  I  ran  my  mind  repeatedly  over  what  might  be  under- 
taken with  my  resources.  I  had  many  valuable  manuscripts 
giving  the  efforts  and  achievements  of  men  first  in  the 
field  to  break  the  ground  for  the  building  of  new  empire. 
I  might  edit  and  print  a  series  of  a  hundred  or  more  of 
these  manuscripts,  which  would  be  of  value  in  the  various 
libraries  of  the  world. 

Still  I  was  not  satisfied.  Slowly  the  more  ambitious 
idea  of  history  crept  through  my  mind,  but  only  to  be  re- 
jected as  beyond  my  capabilities.  I  loved  work,  and  I  did 
not  care  for  money,  but  I  abhorred  failure. 

My  business  was  prosperous,  and  I  felt  secure  that  it 
would  bring  me  in  whatever  means  I  should  require  for 
any  reasonable  purpose.  Meanwhile  as  traffic  in  the  city 
was  drifting  southward,  and  my  quarters  at  Montgomery 
and  Merchant  streets,  even  with  additional  storage  rooms 
on  Clay  street,  were  restricted,  I  concluded  to  let  my  his- 
torical instincts  lie  fallow  while  I  provided  a  more  suitable 
housing  for  my  book  business. 

I  determined  to  build ;  but  to  obtain  a  suitable  site  was 
the  first  consideration.  There  was  but  one  direction  open 
to  me.  I  started  from  where  I  stood  and  canvassed  every 
piece  of  property  on  both  sides  of  Montgomery  street  to 
Market.  They  were  all  out  of  the  question,  being  cut  up 
into  small  holdings  with  substantial  buildings  on  them.  I 


321 

continued  out  Market  street.  Lots  on  the  north  side  were 
too  angular  and  inconvenient  for  my  purpose.  Finally  on 
the  south  side  of  Market  street,  between  Third  and  Fourth 
streets,  I  found  a  place  where  possibly  I  might  get  in  an 
entering  wedge. 

At  first  there  was  only  one  lot  available,  twenty-five  by 
one  hundred  feet.  A  four-story  frame  building  stood  on 
it,  and  the  price  was  thirty  thousand  dollars.  This  was  in 
1869.  I  found  I  could  get  two  lots  in  the  rear,  fronting  on 
Stevenson  street,  each  twenty  by  seventy  feet,  for  six  thou- 
sand dollars  each.  A  Frenchman  owned  the  twenty  feet 
adjoining  for  which  he  demanded  twelve  thousand  dollars. 
The  two  lots  adjoining  on  Market  street  belonged  to  Mr. 
Somers,  who  did  not  wish  to  sell,  but  in  order  to  secure  a 
good  building  for  the  block  he  kindly  consented  to  move 
southward,  provided  he  could  get  the  same  space  on  the 
same  side  of  Market  opposite  Dupont  street. 

I  obtained  options  on  every  thing,  including  the  French- 
man's  lot,  and  gathered  my  company  early  one  day  into 
Mr.  Tobin's  office  over  the  Hibernia  bank,  then  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Montgomery  and  Market  streets.  There  were  five 
transactions  to  be  consummated,  the  failure  of  any  one  of 
which  would  spoil  the  whole.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  after  a 
long  day  of  some  anxiety  the  sales  and  purchases  were  satis- 
factorily completed. 

Some  time  afterward  having  occasion  to  borrow  some 
portion  of  the  money  for  building,  with  Mr.  Tobin's  ab- 
stract of  title  I  applied  to  Mr.  Burr  of  the  San  Francisco 
Savings  and  Loan  Society.  Yes,  I  could  have  the  money,  a 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  at  eleven  per  cent,  per  annum 
and  eight  hundred  dollars  lawyers'  fees  for  passing  upon 
the  title. 

As  Mr.  Burr  was  not  a  lawyer,  and  as  the  somewhat 
intricate  title  had  already  been  firmly  established  by  a  com- 
petent person,  Mr.  James  de  Fremery,  a  director  in  the 
Burr  bank,  took  exceptions  to  Burr's  methods,  withdrew 
from  the  bank,  and  organized  the  San  Francisco  Savings 


322  RETROSPECTION 

Union  upon  equitable  principles,  with  Lovell  "White  and 
Alexander  Campbell  as  cashier  and  attorney  respectively, 
and  whose  dealings,  like  those  of  their  neighbor  the  Ger- 
man Savings  and  Loan  Society,  have  ever  been  examples 
of  high  integrity.  A  generation  has  passed  away  and  the 
old  Burr  bank  and  the  de  Fremery  bank  may  now  be  seen 
united  as  the  Savings  Union  bank  of  San  Francisco  at 
Grant  avenue  and  Market  street. 

Upon  the  completion  of  the  Market  street  building  I 
placed  my  library  on  the  top  floor  with  a  man  in  charge. 
I  was  then  obliged  to  give  my  whole  attention  for  a  time  to 
business.  I  had  allowed  prosperity  of  late  to  carry  me 
along  a  little  too  fast.  The  completion  of  the  overland 
railroad  had  upturned  and  disarranged  matters  to  the  dis- 
comfiture of  some  and  the  ruin  of  others.  To  a  few  it  was 
a  benefit ;  to  many  it  brought  disaster. 

In  the  first  place,  in  anticipation  of  what  the  railroad 
would  do  for  the  country  business  had  expanded  and  real- 
estate  values  had  become  inflated.  Sales  were  extensive, 
much  borrowed  capital  being  used.  And  now  when  every- 
body wanted  to  sell  and  settle  up,  prices  dropped  and  trans- 
actions became  limited. 

The  arbitrary  action  of  the  railroad  men  intensified 
distress.  All  at  once  they  had  become  masters  of  men,  and 
all  the  people  were  their  enemy.  Inquiry  was  met  by  in- 
sult; it  would  be  a  poor  railroad  man  who  should  give  to 
a  passenger  a  civil  answer.  The  law  was  laid  down  regard- 
ing freight  charges,  and  a  system  of  espionage  inaugurated. 
A  scale  of  charges  was  established,  and  to  secure  the  lowest 
rate  the  merchant  must  get  his  goods  all  out  by  rail;  he 
should  not  lend  his  advantages  to  another;  he  could  not 
bring  goods  over  the  line  for  one  who  used  Cape  Horn  ves- 
sels or  the  Isthmus  route;  he  should  not  sell  goods  to  any 
one  not  a  favored  patron  of  the  railroad,  and  so  on. 

In  place  of  the  palmy  days  so  long  anticipated  when 
every  one  was  to  be  rich  and  happy,  California  suddenly 


METHODS    OF    WRITING    HISTORY          323 

found  herself  under  a  cloud  of  commercial  despotism  such 
as  would  cause  a  feudal  baron  to  blush  with  shame.  Re- 
venge, too,  was  sweet,  and  all  who  had  offended  during  the 
period  of  construction  were  made  to  suffer.  Reprisal  was 
the  order  of  the  day.  Towns  as  well  as  individuals  were 
placed  under  ban.  It  was  not  forgotten  or  forgiven  of  San 
Francisco  that  the  citizens  had  preferred  to  give  six  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  rather  than  take  stock  where  they 
had  no  confidence  either  in  the  enterprise  or  in  the  men 
who  managed  it. 

Finally,  the  books  of  all  doing  business  with  the  rail- 
road should  be  open  to  the  inspection  of  its  agents  at  all 
times.  But  all  this  I  have  presented  in  another  chapter 
of  this  Retrospection. 

An  unlocked  for  pusillanimity,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  ap- 
peared among  the  people.  There  were  but  few  of  them  of 
the  old  stock;  aliens  had  come  in;  even  the  old  merchants 
were  afraid;  some  failed,  others  declined  business  and  de- 
parted from  the  country;  there  was  no  talk  of  tearing  up 
the  rails  and  hanging  the  offenders  as  might  have  been 
heard  in  times  past;  they  did  not  even  band  for  mutual 
protection,  these  timid  traffickers,  as  the  men  of  Chicago 
had  done;  there  was  too  much  of  the  subservient  blood  of 
Europe  in  their  veins;  each  was  looking  out  for  his  own 
safety. 

And  so  continued  this  tyranny  with  certain  modifica- 
tions for  a  period  of  forty  years,  until  as  we  hope  the  end 
has  come,  and  for  which  let  us  thank  God  and  Governor 
Johnson. 

The  hard  times  held  in  check  historical  aspirations.  In 
common  with  others  who  had  anticipated  a  rich  harvest 
on  the  completion  of  the  railroad,  my  affairs  had  become 
unduly  expanded.  Besides  building  on  Market  street,  and 
adding  manufacturing  in  all  its  branches  to  an  already 
extensive  mercantile  business,  organized  with  a  score  of 
departments  each  under  a  competent  head,  I  had  erected 
an  elegant  dwelling  at  California  and  Franklin  streets. 


324  RETROSPECTION 

getting  out  hard-wood  finish  from  New  York,  roofing-slate 
from  Vermont,  and  tiles  and  stained  glass  from  England. 

Anticipating  an  advance  in  prices  of  real-estate,  I  had 
bought  lots  farther  out  on  Market  street  which  I  could  not 
now  sell  except  at  a  serious  loss.  But  suffice  it  to  say,  with 
some  battlings  and  many  bad  quarters  of  an  hour  I 
weathered  the  storm,  which  indeed  had  finally  swept  over 
the  whole  financial  world,  and  came  out  into  the  open  sun- 
shine again  little  the  worse  for  the  conflict.  And  with 
what  is  usually  regarded  as  justifiable  pride  in  a  merchant, 
I  should  like  here  to  remark,  that  in  all  my  business  career 
I  have  never  failed  to  pay  a  just  debt  nor  asked  for  an  ex- 
tension. 

I  began  to  consider  seriously  declining  business  alto- 
gether, or  at  least  so  much  of  it  as  might  seriously  inter- 
fere with  my  history-writing,  which  I  had  now  firmly  re- 
solved to  undertake.  I  had  been  long  enough  bound  down 
to  working  only  for  money,  and  the  occupation  had  become 
distasteful  to  me.  I  had  no  expensive  indulgences,  and  I 
had  money  enough  both  for  my  family  and  for  carrying 
on  my  historical  investigations.  And,  although  but  for 
this  infatuation  I  should  have  more  to  spend  and  should 
have  been  able  to  save  up  some  millions  for  my  children — 
for  I  could  always  make  and  save  money  when  I  tried — 
yet  from  first  to  last  there  never  was  one  among  them  who 
was  not  more  enthusiastic  in  my  historical  aspirations,  and 
more  solicitous  for  me  to  proceed,  and  more  confident 
of  my  success  than  ever  was  I  myself. 

I  never  imagined  that  any  thing  I  might  accomplish 
would  possess  any  high  degree  of  merit  other  than  that  of 
absolute  reliability.  The  simple  truth  in  plain  language 
was  all  I  aimed  at,  and  if  any  doubted  my  judgment  or 
questioned  my  inferences,  there  before  the  reader  should  be 
the  sources  of  my  information  from  which  he  might  draw 
his  own  conclusions.  I  had  no  imaginary  axes  to  grind, 
no  ulterior  ambition  in  view. 


METHODS   OF  WHITING   HISTORY         325 

As  a  financial  proposition  I  was  publisher  enough  to 
know  that  such  work  did  not  pay,  and  poorly  equipped  as 
I  was  in  ability  and  experience  I  never  hoped  to  achieve 
fame.  I  appreciated  the  situation  only  so  far  as  to  see  that 
howsoever  crude  might  be  my  effort,  there  was  here  an 
opportunity  to  do  for  this  western  America  more  extensive 
and  complete  work  than  had  ever  been  accomplished  for 
any  other  country  in  the  way  of  gathering  and  preserving 
its  early  history.  I  was  here  upon  the  scene  at  the  psycho- 
logical moment,  able  and  willing  to  do  an  important  work 
which  no  one  else  would  undertake  and  which  could  not 
be  done  later. 

I  had  always  possessed  a  strong  predilection  for  achievj 
ing  something  in  literature.  I  should  engage  in  this  work, 
if  at  all,  purely  for  the  love  of  it,  and  in  the  hope  that  it 
might  prove  useful.  It  was  personal  gratification  alone 
that  prompted  me ;  it  was  purely  a  love  of  literature,  a  de- 
sire to  do  something  more  in  the  world  than  buying  and 
selling  and  getting  gain  that  urged  me  on  as  an  impelling 
force  to  this  undertaking,  and  this  was  the  only  reward  I 
ever  promised  myself  or  expected. 

Nor  was  I  slow  to  appreciate  my  further  advantages, 
which  I  might  recognize  without  egotism.  I  was  in  pos- 
session of  the  means  wherewith  to  accomplish  my  purposes. 
I  had  sufficiently  emancipated  myself  from  business  as  to 
give  me  the  time  I  required.  I  was  full  of  my  subject,  and 
full  of  enthusiasm  regarding  it.  And  finally  I  could  devote 
to  it,  if  my  life  should  be  spared,  the  energy  and  intel- 
ligence which  gave  me  to  know  what  I  wished  to  accom- 
plish, and  the  singleness  of  purpose  and  directness  of  ap- 
plication of  one  mind  for  a  series  of  years  without  the  inter- 
ference of  government  officials  or  board  of  directors. 

I  am  quite  sure  that  the  main  object  in  my  mind  in  the 
reduction  of  this  mass  of  material  to  practical  proportions, 
and  placing  its  contents  in  print  in  the  form  of  historical 
narration  was  that  it  should  be  useful  to  the  present  and 


326  RETROSPECTION 

future  generations  laboring  in  the  many  fields  which  it 
covered. 

I  knew  that  if  I  shirked  or  neglected  this  task  it  would 
never  be  done,  but  that  masses  of  valuable  knowledge  would 
be  thrown  away  as  impossible  of  utilization  and  so  lost  to 
the  world  forever.  As  it  turned  out  I  have  only  to  refer  the 
reader  to  the  solid  pages  in  my  history  of  references  to 
the  books  and  manuscripts  in  my  library,  thus  brought 
forward  into  the  light  and  made  to  live  in  literature.  No 
one  would  ever  have  been  insane  enough  to  make  such  an 
attempt  without  the  ways  and  means  at  hand  to  carry  it 
through. 

In  writing  of  the  present  or  proximate  times  the  wise 
historian  will  confine  himself  as  nearly  as  possible  to  a 
simple  narration  of  events  without  speculation  and  without 
dogmatizing.  Opinions  too  strongly  asserted  are  seldom 
free  from  prejudice.  The  best  work  for  a  historian  of  his 
own  time  is  to  state  facts  and  give  the  authorities.  No  such 
work  can  be  worthless. 

I  thus  realized  that  with  this  wealth  of  material  some- 
thing important  could  be  done,  but  what  or  how  I  could 
not  tell,  and  long  after  the  business  of  the  day  was  over 
my  mind  would  dwell  upon  the  subject  until  it  became  an 
obsession. 

I  saw  at  once  that  without  assistance  I  could  accomplish 
but  little,  and  the  question  was  how  to  utilize  the  work  of 
others  in  historical  research.  What  could  I  do  ?  Here  was 
work  for  twenty  men  for  twenty  years— and  in  truth  it 
proved  to  be  in  the  end  much  more  than  that.  It  made  my 
head  ache  and  my  heart  sink  to  think  of  it. 

Confronted  by  mixed  masses  of  material,  16,000  books 
maps  and  manuscripts  rapidly  increasing  to  60,000,  with 
500  broken  files  of  newspapers  amounting  in  numbers  to 
many  thousands,  in  various  languages,  issued  at  widely 
different  dates  and  places  running  through  the  century, 
their  contents  invaluable  as  relating  to  early  events — this 
for  the  material;  as  for  the  men  or  machinery  wherewith 


327 

to  reduce  the  mass  to  manageable  proportions,  there  were 
none. 

Nothing  at  hand  available  to  attack  the  proposition,  or 
even  to  throw  out  hints  of  how  it  might  be  done.  Even 
had  there  been  present  all  the  learning  and  experience  of 
the  universities  of  Europe  and  America,  of  what  avail 
were  it?  Of  what  avail  in  this  quagmire  of  erudition 
were  gentlemen  of  the  old  school,  accustomed  only  to  pluck 
flowers  of  philosophy  along  the  beaten  paths  of  knowledge 
made  pleasant  by  the  mediations  of  many  who  had  gone 
before;  of  what  avail  the  expert  master  of  psychological 
mysteries  for  a  plunge  into  this  murky  mass,  therefrom, 
as  he  would  say,  to  reflect  adequately  the  deep  human  sig- 
nificance and  scientific  importance  of  the  collective  life 
which  should  be  there? 

Psychological  speculations  upon  the  action  of  mankind 
under  given  conditions,  with  economic  elucidations  as  to 
what  is  and  will  be,  howsoever  interesting  and  profitable 
for  the  student  is  not  all  of  history.  The  many  able  pro- 
fessors in  our  universities  who  stand  in  the  world's  front 
rank  as  analysts  of  human  phenomena  should  not  forget 
those  who  have  gone  before,  that  the  field  of  their  specula- 
tions has  been  many  times  written  over  from  various  view- 
points, and  that  without  this  labor  of  others  they  could 
have  accomplished  but  little;  that  in  every  line  they  write 
they  are  in  a  measure  applying  the  thoughts  and  accom- 
plishments of  others  to  their  own  elaborations. 

This  is  one  of  the  many  emergencies  I  had  to  meet  in 
my  literary  exploitations  of  a  trackless  field,  a  task  long 
since  and  in  various  ways  performed  for  those  who  confine 
their  speculations  to  the  beaten  paths  of  history,  a  labor 
not  always  appreciated  by  those  who  derive  the  greatest 
benefit  from  it. 

Then  as  now  I  held  the  highest  opinion  in  regard  to 
the  future  of  these  shores  of  the  Pacific,  though  I  was 
scarcely  prepared  for  the  immediate  expansion  of  the 
American  people  such  as  actually  occurred  after  the  Span- 


328  KETROSPECTION 

ish  war.  As  to  the  relative  importance  of  historical  events, 
however,  I  have  always  felt  that  the  presence  of  the  Rus- 
sians at  Fort  Ross,  or  the  Hudson  Bay  company's  people 
at  Yerba  Buena  were  as  important  as  the  adventures  of 
Romulus  and  Remus  with  their  pet  wolf. 

I  had  neither  the  time  nor  the  inclination  for  much 
speculation,  my  chief  concern  being  to  bring  into  perspec- 
tive from  the  mixed  mass  before  me  the  pertinent  truths 
»f  history ;  and  I  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of  the  sub- 
lime significance  of  the  unfoldings  of  a  new  civilization. 

As  there  was  a  work  here  to  be  done,  a  work  which  would 
have  itself  done,  and  as  I  knew  nothing  but  business  I  must 
apply  to  it  business  methods  or  none,  and  I  had  not  pro- 
ceeded far  before  I  became  satisfied  that  in  no  other  way 
could  any  thing  have  been  made  out  of  the  situation. 

But  how  to  go  about  it  was  the  question.  I  understood 
well  enough  the  usual  way  of  gathering  facts,  extracting 
material,  and  presenting  in  narrative  form,  well  digested 
and  organized,  the  completed  work. 

The  author  does  everything  himself,  investigates, 
searches  out  sources  of  information,  reads,  analyzes,  ex- 
tracts, collates,  and  determines. 

"I  never  trust  any  one  to  do  this  for  me,"  he  would 
say.  ' '  How  should  I  otherwise  know  it  to  be  correct  ?  And 
how  could  I  assert  it  to  be  correct  if  I  did  not  know  it  to 
be  so?" 

So  might  the  shipmaster  say,  "How  shall  I  know  this 
vessel  to  be  safe  unless  I  lay  every  plank?"  Or  the  railroad 
builder,  "Unless  I  drive  every  spike  how  shall  I  vouch  for 
it?"  True,  but  the  world  would  not  move  forward  very 
rapidly  at  that  rate.  I  have  had  hundreds  of  men,  and  so 
has  every  other  large  employer  of  labor,  whom  I  would 
trust  in  the  most  vital  affairs  as  fully  as  I  would  trust 
myself. 

All  the  same  a  strong  prejudice  existed  among  the 
scholars  and  writers  who  had  spent  their  lives  in  prepara- 
tion for  work  along  the  old  lines  against  an  innovation 


METHODS    OF   WRITING   HISTORY          329 

which  practically  rendered  their  way  obsolete;  and  every 
one  knows  that  it  is  not  easy,  once  having  become  accus- 
tomed to  certain  methods,  whether  in  the  way  of  law, 
medicine  or  theology,  which  by  many  for  many  years  has 
been  held  to  be  the  only  right  way,  it  is  not  so  easy  to  dis- 
card it  even  though  another  way  is  proved  to  be  better. 

On  moving  my  collection  from  its  original  place  at 
Montgomery  and  Merchant  streets,  I  was  able  to  give  it 
spacious  quarters  upon  the  upper  floor  of  the  new  Market 
street  building,  where  were  good  light  and  air  and  all  the 
adjuncts  of  a  model  literary  work-shop.  The  library  room 
was  170  feet  long  and  forty  feet  wide,  with  my  own  private 
rooms  adjoining.  All  the  available  wall  space  of  the 
library  room  was  covered  with  well  filled  shelves,  a  portion 
of  the  middle  space  being  utilized  later  as  the  collection 
became  enlarged. 

A  plan  finally  took  shape  in  my  mind,  after  consider- 
ing and  rejecting  many  others,  which  enabled  me  to  begin. 
It  was  first  to  index  the  entire  collection  as  one  would  index 
a  single  book.  To  this  end  five  long  tables  were  made  and 
placed  lengthwise  in  the  middle  of  the  library  room.  On 
either  side  of  the  tables  were  seated  the  indexers,  the  num- 
ber being  usually  kept  at  about  thirty.  At  a  volume  a  day 
each,  twenty  thousand  of  the  more  important  books  might 
be  gone  over  in  two  years.  But  during  the  progress  of  my 
work  the  number  of  volumes  increased  threefold,  which 
increase  had  to  be  met  as  best  I  was  able. 

To  prevent  the  index  from  scattering  the  extracted  in- 
formation over  too  wide  a  range  of  subjects,  forty  themes 
were  given  out,  under  which  all  real  knowledge  might  be 
classified,  subordinate  lines  being  added  as  occasion  re- 
quired. Thus  under  mines  would  be  brought  together  all 
the  mines  throughout  the  entire  territory,  the  sub-titless 
as  Zacatecas  1681,  Coloma  1848,  bringing  together  all  exist- 
ing  local  information,  a  thousand  different  mining  districts 
being  thus  brought  under  one  heading,  yet  each  district 


330  RETROSPECTION 

complete  in  its  arrangement,  and  all  distinct  one  from 
another.  So  with  regard  to  other  subjects,  as  Agricul- 
ture, Botany,  Manufactures,  and  so  on. 

The  indexers  were  selected  from  those  applying  as  best 
I  was  able  to  distinguish  in  some  measure  which  were  the 
more  promising.  These  were  instructed  by  those  I  had 
drilled,  their  work  proved  and  passed  upon  by  the  one  in 
charge  of  the  table,  who  also  gave  out  the  books  and  kept 
an  account  of  what  was  done. 

My  assistants,  here  as  elsewhere,  were  educated  men  of 
all  ages  and  degrees  of  competency  and  of  all  nationalities. 
The  trial  of  an  hour  decided  the  fate  of  some,  while  others 
were  promoted  to  more  advanced  positions,  and  retained 
their  place  some  of  them  for  ten  or  twenty  years. 

Next  came  the  extracting  of  all  the  information  extant 
upon  each  of  the  several  localities  thus  brought  together 
and  placed  within  reach  by  the  index.  Comparatively  few 
were  able  to  stand  the  test  of  competency  in  this  work,  as 
besides  absolute  accuracy  certain  literary  ability  was  re- 
quired to  write  it  out  in  proper  form.  Out  of  a  thousand 
indexers  perhaps  a  dozen  might  be  found,  and  if  in  that 
dozen  there  should  be  one  or  two  who  could  render  me  real 
assistance  in  arranging,  revising,  rewriting,  condensing, 
adding,  eliminating,  or  whatever  else  was  essential  to  as- 
sure proper  narration,  I  felt  myself  fortunate  indeed. 

With  my  subject  well  in  hand,  the  treatment  mapped 
in  my  mind,  conflicting  statements  reconciled  and  knotty 
questions  settled,  I  composed  rapidly,  whether  writing  out 
my  narrative  or  dictating  to  a  stenographer. 

During  the  following  six  years  of  preparation,  a  gen- 
eral plan,  covering  my  entire  field  of  effort,  developed  in 
my  mind,  which  I  carried  out  successfully,  though  mod- 
ified as  the  work  progressed  to  meet  emergencies. 

Central  America,  being  first  of  the  continental  discov- 
eries and  occupation  by  Europeans,  obviously  should  be 
the  proper  starting  point. 


METHODS   OF  WRITING   HISTORY         331 

So  I  began  there  with  the  coming  of  Columbus,  and 
Rodrigo  de  Bastidas,  and  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa  to  this 
weird  land  of  strange  adventure  and  romantic  experiences. 

At  every  turn  the  natives  interposed,  forced  upon  the 
issues  of  the  moment  before  all  things  else  except  gold. 
For  a  time  I  floundered  about  trying  to  overcome  or  evade 
them.  If  I  passed  them  by  too  briefly  their  agency  in  con- 
quest and  occupation  would  remain  ill-understood;  if  I 
stopped  to  describe  them  properly,  who  and  what  they 
were,  and  why  they  so  behaved,  the  continuity  of  my  work 
would  be  affected,  events  become  misplaced,  and  the  thread 
of  the  narrative  broken  or  lost. 

There  was  but  one  thing  I  could  do ;  to  get  rid  of  them 
I  must  write  them  up. 

Thus  originated  my  first  work,  The  Native  Races  of  the 
Pacific  States  of  North  America,  in  five  octavo  volumes, 
with  many  maps  and  illustrations. 

My  system  worked  admirably  here.  It  focused  to  the 
paper  beneath  my  pen  every  peculiarity,  every  phase  of 
form  and  feeling  of  all  the  many  several  tribes  and  nations, 
of  whatsoever  degree  of  culture  or  of  savagism,  inhabiting 
the  seaboard  and  interior  all  the  way  from  Alaska  to 
Panama. 

I  first  mapped  out  the  country  and  then  arranged  the 
detail  for  the  treatment  of  the  subject,  directing  my  as- 
sistants to  lay  out  the  material  so  arranged  for  my  use. 
Beginning  at  the  north  I  called  the  first  division  Hyper- 
boreans, the  second  Columbians,  followed  by  the  Cali- 
fornians,  and  the  wild  tribes  and  civilized  nations  of  Mexico 
and  Central  America,  I  gave  separately  and  at  length  their 
respective  manners  and  customs,  their  mythologies,  lan- 
guages, and  primitive  history. 

It  was  fortunate  in  several  respects  that  it  so  fell  out 
that  this  should  be  the  first  of  the  series  to  be  written  and 
published,  as  for  a  new  and  untried  author  it  was  less  diffi- 
cult of  accomplishment  than  the  subsequent  volumes,  less 
open  to  criticism,  and  more  immediately  useful  to  scholars. 


332  RETROSPECTION 

The  volumes  when  published  brought  my  undertaking 
at  once  into  favor,  and  secured  for  me  a  high  reputation 
for  faithful  and  efficient  effort. 

Soon  after  their  publication  I  received  letters  from 
Doctor  Draper,  President  Porter  of  Yale  College  with  a 
complimentary  degree,  Mr.  Lecky,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  and 
Herbert  Spencer  commending  the  book  in  the  highest 
terms.  Emerson,  Lowell,  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  and 
others  were  also  profuse  in  words  of  appreciation  and 
praise. 

Then  along  similar  lines  I  continued  writing  and  pub- 
lishing my  histories,  issuing  one  volume  at  a  time,  the  whole 
period  of  publication  covering  fifteen  years. 

After  Central  America,  in  three  volumes,  came  the 
History  of  Mexico  in  six  volumes,  covering  a  period  of 
nearly  four  hundred  years.  I  soon  saw  that  the  allotted 
space  was  too  limited  properly  to  include  the  exploitation 
of  the  northern  states  of  the  republic,  and  the  secession  of 
Texas ;  I  concluded  therefore  to  embody  this  latter  work  in 
two  volumes  entitled  History  of  the  North  Mexican  States 
and  Texas. 

Then  followed  the  History  of  California,  in  seven  vol- 
umes; Arizona  and  New  Mexico,  one  volume;  Northwest 
Coast,  two  volumes;  Oregon,  two  volumes;  Washington 
Idaho  and  Montana,  one  volume;  British  Columbia,  one 
volume;  Alaska,  one  volume;  Utah,  one  volume;  Nevada 
Wyoming  and  Colorado,  one  volume;  Popular  Tribunals, 
two  volumes;  California  Inter  Pocula,  one  volume;  Cali- 
fornia Pastoral,  one  volume;  Essays  and  Miscellany,  one 
volume;  and  Literary  Industries,  one  volume. 

All  of  these  volumes  contain  numerous  references  to  the 
sources  of  information  whence  it  was  derived.  I  desired 
above  all  accuracy  in  the  statement  of  facts,  and  in  their 
elucidation  good  judgment  and  fairness  of  decision  in  re- 
lation to  men  and  things. 

I  adopted  a  system  of  checks  and  counter  checks  which 
rendered  it  almost  impossible  for  an  error  to  pass  the  proof- 


METHODS    OF   WRITING   HISTORY          333 

reading,  no  matter  how  many  pages  of  references  there 
might  be  in  a  chapter.  In  one  instance,  however,  where 
there  were  two  editions  of  the  same  book  paged  differently, 
one  edition  was  given  in  the  list  of  authorities  while  the 
references  were  made  to  the  other  edition.  The  error  was 
not  detected  until  half  of  the  edition  had  been  sent  out. 
Every  copy,  however,  was  immediately  called  in  and  the 
proper  corrections  made,  though  involving  no  small  labor 
and  expense,  as  the  books  had  been  widely  scattered  in  the 
delivery.  No  other  instance  of  the  kind  ever  happened 
with  me,  nor  have  I  ever  had  pointed  out  to  me  an  un- 
corrected  error  in  the  references,  notes  or  text. 

My  method  evolved  itself  from  the  necessities  of  the 
case.  I  had  no  one  to  confer  with.  There  was  available 
no  person  of  experience  whom  I  might  engage  to  assist  me, 
and  had  there  been  such  it  would  have  made  no  difference, 
for  never  before  had  there  been  such  an  undertaking  as  the 
reduction  to  forms  available  of  such  a  mass  of  raw  material 
as  that  which  was  now  before  me. 

The  cooperative  method  of  history-writing,  wherein 
some  score  of  expert  scholars  or  professors  each  contribute 
a  monograph  upon  that  part  of  the  subject  with  which  he 
is  most  familiar,  the  whole  being  planned  and  put  together 
by  an  editor,  had  not  yet  come  into  vogue,  nor  did  it  until 
after  my  work  was  published  and  my  method  eyed  askance 
by  professionals. 

Still  later  appeared  another  form  in  which  to  present 
historical  information,  the  encyclopedic,  on  which  are  en- 
gaged many  writers,  great  and  small,  the  names  of  none  but 
the  more  prominent  being  mentioned.  This  differs  from 
the  cooperative  method  only  in  degree,  the  latter  giving  a 
volume  to  an  epoch  or  an  episode  while  the  former  is  more 
topical,  from  a  few  lines  to  many  pages  being  given  to  a 
single  subject. 

The  vastness  of  my  plan  made  it  appear  chimerical  in 
the  eyes  of  some,  yet  it  was  clearly  enough  to  be  seen  that 


334  RETROSPECTION 

the  old  system  must  pass  away,  that  there  was  a  limit  to 
individual  endeavor,  and  that  henceforth  no  extensive  his- 
torical investigation  would  be  undertaken  by  one  man  alone. 

An  elaborate  publication  was  brought  out  by  the  li- 
brarian of  Harvard  university,  consisting  of  monographs 
by  different  writers  on  historical  subjects  arranged  chrono- 
logically by  the  editor  and  printed  as  history.  The  work 
is  historical  but  it  is  not  history  in  the  ordinary  sense,  it  is 
not  a  systematic  record  of  past  events. 

A  few  persons  only  ever  understood  the  situation.  I 
was  far  from  understanding  it  myself  at  the  start.  I  had 
nothing  to  go  by.  Never  before  had  such  work  been  un- 
dertaken or  accomplished  by  any  one.  Lord  Kingsborough 
essayed  an  impossible  task,  and  his  ninth  folio  volume  found 
him  bankrupt  and  insane,  as  we  have  seen. 

There  are  few  similar  instances  on  record,  for  there 
have  been  made  by  a  single  individual  few  attempts  which 
were  beyond  the  accomplishment  of  one  man.  Neither  the 
individual,  nor  the  cooperative,  nor  the  encyclopedic,  nor 
any  other  known  method  of  writing  history  could  have  been 
successfully  applied  to  my  work,  as  no  such  conditions  had 
ever  before  existed,  and  no  such  work  had  ever  before  been 
done. 

History  on  the  cooperative  plan  is  not  history,  but 
merely  phases  of  history  by  writers  of  various  ideas  and 
individual  trains  of  thought  welded  together  by  a  nominal 
editor,  whose  work  is  ill-organized  and  ill-digested,  unas- 
similated,  lacking  unity,  lacking  all  adequate  reflection,  all 
the  "deep  human  significance  and  scientific  importance  of 
the  collective  life  it  seeks  to  describe,"  and  which  no  one 
but  a  trained  professional  with  a  mind  narrowed  by  con- 
ventionalism would  ever  undertake. 

What  would  a  so-called  history  of  the  American  Revo- 
lution be,  made  up  of  disconnected  papers  by  Patrick 
Henry,  Benjamin  Franklin,  John  Hancock,  Alexander 
Hamilton,  and  edited  and  promulgated  by  Aaron  Burr? 
Notwithstanding  the  numberless  historical  monographs  and 


METHODS    OF  WRITING   HISTORY          335 

the  writing  at  history  in  what  may  prove  to  be  documentary 
material,  epitomes,  and  episodes,  there  is  but  little  writ- 
ing of  history,  of  organized  historical  work,  going  on  at 
the  present  time. 

The  federal  government  and  many  of  the  several  states 
are  constantly  grinding  out  historical  volumes  without 
purpose  or  plan  and  which  are  of  little  use  to  the  general 
reader  or  to  any  one  except  the  writer  of  history  competent 
to  put  the  information  they  contain  into  proper  form  and 
sequence. 

Obviously  in  all  specialized  work  there  must  be  a  lack 
of  uniformity  which  destroys  continuity  even  where  a  care- 
ful plan  has  been  formulated.  Specialization  is  valuable 
in  organized  historical  work  only  as  prepared  material  to 
be  brought  into  compact  and  consecutive  form  by  a  single 
mind. 

All  subordinate  literary  work  was  at  the  time  of  my  his- 
tory writing  impersonal.  The  newspapers  of  that  day  were 
not  loaded  with  the  names  and  faces  of  sub-editors,  re- 
porters, and  special  writers  until  the  reader  became 
nauseated  from  having  the  same  portraits  placed  under  his 
nose  every  day  in  the  year. 

After  my  books  appeared  showing  on  their  face  research 
such  as  could  not  have  been  accomplished  by  one  man  or  a 
dozen  men,  it  became  evident  to  copartnership  writers  that 
no  great  historical  work  in  a  new  field  could  ever  be  carried 
out  by  a  single  person;  and  that  even  to  work  over  old 
fields  in  the  most  effective  way,  specialists  must  be  em- 
ployed, each  expert  in  his  own  sphere.  Some  good  work 
was  accomplished  in  this  way  though  it  could  scarcely  be 
called  history,  as  I  have  said.  The  person  assuming  the 
editorship  was  usually  selected  by  the  publisher  having 
the  project  in  hand  for  his  popularity  or  prominence,  and 
who  had  nothing  to  do  with  the  enterprise  except  to  lend, 
it  his  name,  and  for  which  he  received  due  compensation. 

In  some  instances  he  looks  over  the  ground,  makes  out 
a  list  of  subjects,  and  gives  them  out  to  the  several  writers 


336  RETROSPECTION 

whom  he  regards  most  competent  for  the  purpose.  There 
is  no  unity  in  the  work,  no  consecutive  narration,  no  ideas 
to  be  advanced  and  no  deductions  to  be  drawn.  The 
novelty  of  it  has  passed  away  and  the  method  is  already 
obsolete,  and  such  history  as  is  the  work  of  one  person  must 
hereafter  be  confined  to  a  few  volumes  such  as  can  be  en- 
compassed by  a  single  writer  with  perhaps  half  a  dozen 
assistants. 

Cooperative  history  presupposes  that  the  reader  is  fa- 
miliar not  only  with  the  facts  of  history  but  with  the  phil- 
osophy of  history  and  needs  no  further  enlightenment  in 
these  directions,  so  that  the  writer  may  give  himself  up  to 
reflections  on  the  several  phases  of  history  brought  into 
somewhat  undue  prominence  by  special  pleading. 

He  who  labors  in  fields  already  well  worked  may  employ 
other  words  but  finds  few  new  facts,  while  for  the  ideas 
which  he  imagines  his  own  he  is  indebted  to  some  scores  of 
others  to  whom  he  gives  scant  credit. 

To  have  turned  loose  into  my  raw  material  such  a 
writer,  or  even  to  have  given  free  rein  to  an  able  university 
professor,  experienced  in  cooperative  history  work,  yet 
with  faculties  contracted  by  running  for  a  lifetime  in  a 
single  rut,  asking  him  for  a  proper  consideration  to  present 
me  over  his  signature  a  volume  which  should  "reflect  ad- 
equately the  deep  human  significance  and  scientific  impor- 
tance of  the  collective  life"  he  might  be  able  to  find  in 
the  mixed  mass  before  him,  that  I  might  place  his  volume 
beside  a  dozen  other  volumes,  by  a  dozen  other  like  pro- 
fessors, and  call  it  all  history,  writing  my  name  in  a  general 
title-page  as  editor,  would  have  proved  ludicrous  in  the 
extreme. 

But  even  had  I  so  desired  there  was  no  such  person  pres- 
ent. I  had  only  raw  material  to  put  at  work  on  raw 
material.  If  ever  I  was  to  have  assistants  I  must  make 
them.  If  ever  I  was  to  reduce  my  material  to  forms 
available,  lacking  a  method  I  must  make  one.  I  knew 


METHODS   OF  WETTING   HISTORY         337 

what  I  wished  to  accomplish  and  I  made  no  secret  of  it, 
or  of  the  several  means  I  employed  in  my  efforts. 

Always  the  doors  of  my  library  were  open  to  all  the 
world. 

Theories  and  methods  alike  I  regarded  lightly  so  that 
the  finished  work  met  with  the  approval  of  the  best  judges, 
and  that  I  fortunately  had  from  first  to  last. 

People  have  said,  and  I  for  one  know  it  to  be  true,  that 
never  before  since  the  writing  of  history  began  has  any 
such  amount  of  steady  persistent  effort  of  honest,  earnest, 
well-directed  and  intelligent  labor  been  given  to  any  his- 
torical work,  nor  yet  the  half  of  it,  whether  by  a  govern- 
ment, a  society,  or  an  individual.  Nor  is  it  likely  ever  to 
occur  again,  it  being  next  to  impossible  that  the  several  es- 
sential conditions  should  ever  meet  again. 

The  merely  mechanical  writing  was  the  smallest  part 
of  it.  The  most  strenuous  effort  for  me  was  in  the  long 
and  arduous  task  of  collecting,  extracting,  and  classifying 
the  material. 

My  people  used  to  expostulate  with  me  for  giving  such 
free  references  to  my  sources  of  information.  They  said 
I  was  not  doing  myself  justice,  and  that  many  writers  who 
came  after  me  would  use  my  work  without  due  credit;  or 
worse,  extract  all  their  information  from  my  work  while 
pretending  that  they  had  before  them  the  original  au- 
thorities. 

For  in  all  my  writings,  in  the  main,  I  used  only  the 
original  authorities. 

That  my  work  should  be  seized  with  avidity  and  appro- 
priated without  credit,  even  by  cooperative  history  writers 
and  professors  of  high  repute,  to  say  nothing  of  the  writers 
for  newspapers  and  encyclopedias  was  to  be  expected,  was 
in  fact  a  gratification  rather  than  otherwise,  as  showing  the 
value  of  what  I  had  done.  So  few  of  the  histories  made 
nowadays  are  worth  stealing!  The  credit  received  from 
the  best  people  amply  repaid  me  for  all  my  efforts. 


338  RETROSPECTION 

I  well  knew  that  this  would  be  the  case,  and  so  was  not 
disappointed  as  to  the  result.  On  the  contrary  I  was  glad 
to  find  my  books  of  use  to  searchers  after  information,  and 
to  welcome  every  one  to  their  use,  whether  they  gave  me 
credit  for  the  same  or  not,  that  being  a  small  matter,  as  I 
used  to  tell  my  friends. 

There  were  two  reasons  which  governed  me  in  giving 
the  references  so  fully  for  all  that  I  wrote;  one  was  that 
the  authority  was  entitled  to  the  credit,  and  the  other  that 
my  books  would  be  the  better  for  it. 

My  men  used  also  to  complain  that  I  was  not  fair  to 
myself  in  giving  them  credit  for  so  much  that  they  were 
not  entitled  to.  I  assured  them  that  it  gave  me  pleasure 
to  make  such  acknowledgment  both  verbally  and  in  my 
Literary  Industries. 

And  so  with  regard  to  my  friends  and  the  public;  al- 
though mine  was  the  first  historical  effort  that  had  ever 
been  undertaken  by  a  single  individual  on  an  extensive 
scale,  on  every  side  I  heard  expressions  only  of  confidence 
and  good  will.  My  concern  was  rather  about  the  under- 
taking and  how  it  could  best  be  accomplished,  more 
especially  with  regard  to  arrangement,  accuracy,  and  com- 
pleteness. 

It  was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  such  innovations  as 
I  had  made  throughout  my  entire  work,  in  gathering  ma- 
terial, in  copying  archives,  making  translations,  taking 
dictations,  filling  gaps  by  writing  down  the  acts  and  ex- 
periences of  those  first  to  appear  and  take  part  in  establish- 
ing new  communities,  the  reduction  of  the  conglomerate 
mass  to  forms  available  with  the  assistance  of  inexperienced 
persons  trained  by  the  author  to  work  all  of  them  along  the 
same  lines,  all  to  produce  similar  results,  as  if  accomplished 
all  by  a  single  hand;  then  in  like  manner  but  with  a  still 
greater  degree  of  uniformity  the  several  parts  to  be  brought 
together,  compared,  discrepancies  reconciled,  the  truth  of 
conflicting  statements  ascertained,  and  finally  laid  before 
the  author  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  written  work,  it 


METHODS   OF   WRITING   HISTORY         339 

was  scarcely  to  be  expected  that  such  work  should  escape 
criticism  from  those  who  knew  nothing  about  it,  or  were 
jealous  of  its  accomplishment. 

Yet  it  never  was  severely  criticized.  Before  proceed- 
ing far  in  my  work,  I  took  care  not  to  place  myself  at  the 
mercy  of  the  local  press,  or  of  professional  jealousy,  but  to 
accept  judgment  only  from  unprejudiced  persons  who  knew 
nothing  of  me  and  cared  nothing  for  my  purpose.  In  my 
visits  east  I  confined  my  intercourse  to  the  best  men,  to 
literary  men  and  scholars  of  highest  repute,  men  like 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  and  Wen- 
dell Phillips,  knowing  that  there  I  should  meet  the  fairest 
treatment. 

From  first  to  last,  as  I  have  said,  the  work  held  no 
secret.  My  greatest  safeguard  was  publicity.  The  object 
and  the  plan  were  known  to  all;  the  experiment  with  its 
many  tests  was  worked  out  under  the  eye  of  all;  each 
worker's  work  was  under  the  eyes  of  every  other  worker, 
and  all  open  to  strangers,  visitors  being  little  questioned 
as  to  who  they  were  or  what  they  wanted. 

I  knew  what  I  was  trying  to  do,  and  before  I  had  been 
long  engaged  in  the  effort  I  knew  I  should  accomplish  it. 
The  doors  of  the  library  were  never  locked  during  work- 
ing hours.  Visitors  entered  and  departed  without  for- 
mality, an  intelligent  attache  being  always  in  attendance 
to  show  the  rare  and  curious  books  and  explain  the  nature 
of  the  work  going  forward.  The  severest  drudgery  I  was 
called  upon  to  undergo  was  in  trying  to  utilize  the  labor  of 
others ;  my  only  pleasure  was  in  my  own  work. 

It  was  not  always  easy  to  avoid  treading  on  the  toes  of 
some  among  so  many  of  divers  prejudices.  I  was  not  only 
deeply  interested  in  those  whose  stories  I  told,  but  I  was  in 
hearty  sympathy  with  all  who  came  early  to  this  country, 
while  the  various  religious  beliefs,  Catholic  or  Mormon, 
Jew  or  Gentile,  were  all  one  to  me.  Dear  old  Archbishop 
Alemany,  one  of  the  best  and  purest  men  that  ever  lived, 
kind  hearted  and  tolerant  withal,  seeing  where  I  had  spoken 


340  RETROSPECTION 

rather  carelessly  of  transubstantiation  and  the  infallibility 
of  the  pope,  said,  ' '  They  are  doctrines  very  dear  to  us. "  I 
was  only  too  glad  to  modify  my  expressions. 

The  Jewish  rabbi  took  offense  at  a  quotation  I  made 
from  the  Bible  where  I  was  describing  how  well  the  Jews 
were  doing  in  California,  and  what  a  good  country  it  was 
for  them.  "Jeshurun  waxed  fat  and  kicked,"  were  the 
words,  as  harmless  as  they  were  expressive,  it  seemed  to 
me,  and  taken  from  his  own  sacred  book  of  Deuteronomy. 
He  did  not  like  it  that  they  kicked. 

In  order  to  ascertain  what  value  they  placed  upon  their 
brethren  in  Russia,  I  asked  in  case  of  a  war  on  their  account 
would  the  Jews  join  the  army  and  go,  or  would  they  leave 
others  to  do  the  fighting  for  them. 

Noticing  the  interest  another  church  dignitary  took  in 
Abraham  Ruef,  I  wondered  if  his  church  and  people  would 
prefer  to  have  him  at  liberty  and  among  them,  or  that  their 
society  should  be  purged  of  his  presence  and  he  be  held  in 
prison. 

The  logic  of  religion  and  the  affections  it  is  difficult 
sometimes  to  fathom. 

It  was  amusing  to  watch  the  antics  of  the  California 
Pioneer  society,  whose  members  many  of  them  were  no  less 
ignorant  than  childish,  and  who  became  greatly  excited 
whenever  the  truth  was  too  plainly  spoken  regarding  any 
one  of  their  pet  heroes. 

It  is  the  way  we  are  made.  Speak  a  work  affecting  our 
prejudices,  and  we  are  up  in  arms  regardless  of  truth  or 
reason.  A  word  of  censure  offsets  a  page  of  praise.  In 
my  history  of  California  I  give  biographical  mention  of 
some  thousands  of  white  men  who  came  to  the  country 
prior  to  1848.  Praise  predominates  wherever  possible; 
when  not  possible  the  truth  is  told,  which  brings  a  buzzing 
about  the  ears  of  the  author  from  all  the  witless  fossils  of 
this  San  Francisco  society  of  Incurables.  The  so-called 
conquest  of  California  and  the  bear  flag  performance  were 
fruitful  topics  for  discordance.  Tell  them  that  the  con- 


METHODS   OF  WRITING   HISTORY         341 

quest  of  California  was  achieved  at  Chapultepec  and  rati- 
fied at  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  and  they  would  not  understand 
a  word  of  it. 

Professor  Royce,  of  Harvard,  after  carefully  examining 
my  authorities  concerning  many  disputed  points,  reviewed 
my  work  in  his  History  of  California  and  pronounced  my 
deductions  fair  and  accurate  in  every  respect,  particularly 
those  relating  to  the  unsavory  Fremont. 

Among  the  priests  in  charge  of  the  California  missions, 
as  well  as  those  high  in  ecclesiastical  authority  in  Mexico,  I 
found  many  charming  men,  all  well  educated,  and  most  of 
them  tolerant  and  affable.  Whenever  the  cause  of  Christ 
demanded  plain  pugnacity,  however,  a  champion  was  al- 
ways at  hand,  as  when  the  author  of  a  Catholic  history 
of  California  lays  low  in  the  dust  the  author  of  a  non- 
Catholic  history  while  appropriating  the  work  of  the  latter 
almost  bodily.  The  author  of  the  Catholic  history  must 
admit  the  value  and  accuracy  of  the  non-Catholic  work 
while  denouncing  the  author  for  his  ignorance  and  bigotry. 
Less  honest  writers  simply  purloin  the  facts  and  take  the 
trouble  neither  to  acknowledge  nor  denounce. 

There  have  been  Mormon  histories  of  Utah,  and  Catholic 
histories  of  Oregon,  and  Episcopal  histories  of  British  Col- 
umbia, but  the  historian  who  is  none  of  these,  and  whose 
heart  is  in  his  work  considers  only  the  men  and  their 
achievements,  religious  beliefs  having  little  significance  ex- 
cept as  affecting  material  development.  Religious  zeal  built 
the  missions  of  California,  the  nuclei  of  the  coast  towns 
from  San  Diego  to  San  Francisco.  Religion  framed  a 
state  in  the  mountains  of  the  desert,  and  religion  overspread 
the  valley  of  the  Willamette  with  settlers,  following  the 
missionaries  and  measles,  beneath  which  burdens  the  na- 
tives soon  melted  away. 

In  carrying  forward  the  narration  of  events  I  found 

frequently,  as  was  to  be  expected,  a  hiatus  in  the  material 

necessitating  special  investigation  to  fill  the  gaps,  as  I  have 

heretofore  explained.     For  example,  lacking  Russian  ma- 

12 


342  RETROSPECTION 

terial  for  the  history  of  Alaska,  after  obtaining  from  St. 
Petersburg  everything  printed  on  Russian  America  in  the 
Russian  language,  and  copies  of  the  manuscripts  relating 
to  the  subject  in  the  St.  Petersburg  academy  of  science,  I 
sent  Ivan  Petrof,  first  to  Alaska,  making  two  voyages 
thither,  and  then  to  Washington,  to  the  office  of  the  secretary 
of  state,  where  were  lodged  all  papers  and  documents  which 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  Russian  authorities  in  Alaska  at 
the  time  of  the  transfer  of  that  country  to  the  United 
States.  On  the  two  expeditions  of  Mr.  Petrof  to  Alaska 
he  obtained  much  valuable  material,  and  took  important 
dictations  from  Russian  and  Hudson  Bay  company  officials, 
while  the  greater  part  of  the  two  years  which  were  spent 
subsequently  at  Washington  produced  the  most  satisfactory 
results. 

In  like  manner  while  my  men  were  engaged  in  the  south, 
copying  the  papers  of  and  taking  dictations  from  the  old 
Californian  and  Mexican  families,  Arguello,  Coronel,  Estu- 
dillo,  Arnaz,  and  Ortega  of  San  Jose,  Santa  Barbara,  and 
San  Buenaventura;  and  Bonilla,  Altamirano,  Corona, 
Barrios,  and  fifty  others  of  Lower  California,  Mexico,  Hon- 
duras, and  Guatemala,  they  had  instructions  from  time  to 
time,  as  often  as  paucity  of  information  was  discovered, 
to  make  special  effort  to  supply  the  deficiencies. 

Before  and  after  my  historical  exploitations  northward, 
I  made  frequent  journeys  to  Mexico  and  elsewhere,  pri- 
marily to  fill  breaks  in  the  continuity  of  events,  but  having 
always  in  view  the  acquisition  of  fresh  information. 

In  one  of  my  visits  to  Mexico,  I  took  down,  with  the 
aid  of  native  stenographers,  a  narrative  of  his  life  and 
career,  from  the  lips  of  Porfirio  Diaz,  president  of  the  re- 
public. The  interview  took  place  at  the  house  of  General 
Diaz,  calle  de  San  Augustin,  and  occupied  a  fortnight. 
This  manuscript  sheds  new  light  on  this  most  brilliant 
period  of  the  nation 's  history,  the  events  of  which  had  never 
been  published. 


METHODS   OP  WRITING   HISTORY         343 

I  was  led  to  write  the  Resources  and  Development  of 
Mexico  in  this  way.  The  book  was  printed  in  English  and 
Spanish,  and  published  in  1893.  Two  years  before  this, 
while  I  was  at  his  house  one  day,  General  Diaz  was  going 
over,  with  no  small  satisfaction,  what  had  been  accomplished 
in  Mexico  during  his  regime,  showing  the  marked  advance 
that  had  been  made  in  agriculture,  in  the  exploitation  of 
mines,  in  railway  building,  in  manufactures,  in  schools, 
colleges,  and  intellectual  development,  and  in  the  growing 
efficiency  of  the  army.  "I  take  pride  in  my  country's  ad- 
vancement," he  said.  "I  care  for  nothing  else.  I  wish 
you  would  write  a  book  telling  what  has  been  done,  and 
what  may  be  done,  giving  the  condition  and  resources  of 
the  country." 

"To  do  that,"  I  replied,  "would  require  a  thorough 
canvass  through  the  states  for  the  latest  and  fullest  data." 

* '  I  will  attend  to  that, ' '  he  said.  ' '  I  will  not  only  requisi- 
tion the  governors,  but  send  special  agents  to  gather  all  the 
information  you  require."  Whereupon  I  undertook  the 
work,  he  reading  and  passing  upon  it  as  it  was  going 
through  the  press. 

In  the  archiepiscopal  archives  at  San  Francisco,  at  the 
mission  of  Santa  Barbara,  at  Santa  Clara,  and  other  centres 
of  ecclesiastical  lore,  as  well  as  in  the  county  archives  of  Los 
Angeles  and  other  pueblos,  epitomes  and  abstracts  were 
made  at  various  times  by  my  various  secretaries,  ex-gov- 
ernors judges  and  generals  often  serving  in  that  capacity, 
thereby  adding  their  own  knowledge  to  that  which  they 
found  written  in  the  musty  folios  which  they  drew  forth 
from  their  hidden  recesses  and  gave  to  the  light  of  day  in 
the  form  of  added  manuscripts  for  the  use  of  my  historical 
work. 

While  conducting  the  Evening  Post  in  San  Francisco 
Henry  George  brought  me  the  manuscript  of  his  Progress 
and  Poverty  and  left  it  with  me  to  look  over.  Few  books 
of  a  serious  character  had  as  yet  been  written  in  California. 


344  RETROSPECTION 

There  was  a  large  volume  on  military  law  by  H.  W.  Hal- 
leek,  but  as  the  author  was  neither  military  man  nor  lawyer 
out  of  the  common,  when  he  fell  his  book  went  with  him. 

Upon  examination  of  Progress  and  Poverty  I  became 
satisfied  that  if  issued  from  so  unimportant  a  literary 
centre  as  San  Francisco  it  would  not  receive  the  attention 
it  deserved  at  the  east  and  in  Europe.  This  I  explained 
to  Mr.  George  and  advised  him  to  take  it  to  New  York  for 
publication,  which  he  did. 

One  day  Dom  Pedro  II  of  Brazil  came  upon  me  un- 
ceremoniously and  manifested  a  great  interest  in  my  work. 
He  was  on  a  tour  of  inspection  throughout  the  United 
States,  eager  to  adopt  any  new  ideas  beneficial  to  his 
country. 

He  placed  at  my  services  whatever  there  might  be  of 
use  to  me  in  the  archives  at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  also  ob- 
tained for  me  all  that  I  required  from  Portugal. 

I  might  go  on  reciting  experiences  like  these  to  the  end 
of  the  volume,  so  I  may  as  well  stop  here. 

And  while  my  copious  notes  and  references  threw  open 
to  all  the  world  the  sources  of  my  information,  and  while 
many  writers  and  compilers  used  my  volumes  without  due 
credit,  others  of  a  different  sort  pursued  a  different  course. 
Nevertheless  I  can  truthfully  say  that  from  first  to  last  I 
never  felt  any  lack  of  appreciation  of  my  work,  and  from 
the  best  men,  from  scholars  of  highest  repute,  I  always 
felt  I  was  receiving  more  praise  than  I  deserved. 

This  Retrospection  I  finish  on  this  my  eightieth  birth- 
day. 

My  work  is  done. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

ASIA   AND    AFRICA    IN    AMERICA 

OF  the  several  dark-skinned  races  that  met  western 
civilization  in  America  the  Japanese  though  latest  to 
arrive  were  quickest  to  respond  to  its  influence ;  the  African 
was  the  slowest;  while  the  Chinaman,  the  most  advanced 
of  the  three,  and  as  an  economic  asset  the  best  for  low- 
grade  labor  in  the  world,  was  so  sterilized  by  ages  of  inac- 
tion as  to  be  impervious  to  the  modifying  influences  of 
progress. 

In  1848  there  were  but  three  Chinese  in  California;  700 
came  in  1849,  3000  in  1850,  about  the  same  number  in  1851, 
and  10,000  in  1852.  Then  a  sharp  decline,  the  tide  setting 
in  the  other  way,  and  that  without  expulsion  laws.  More 
came  later,  and  again  the  tide  turned;  whence  it  appears 
that  California  is  not  altogether  and  forever  a  paradise  for 
the  celestial. 

Nippon  did  not  even  awake  at  the  call  of  gold,  nor  yet 
until  Commodore  Perry  knocked  so  loudly  at  her  portal, 
threatening  if  not  opened  to  break  it  down. 

A  true  story  of  the  Asiatics  in  America  illustrates  not 
only  the  elasticity  of  our  old  puritan  principles,  and  certain 
glaring  defects  in  our  republican  systems,  but  it  brings 
home  to  us  as  well  the  amazing  gullibility  of  the  American 
people.  "A  century  of  dishonor"  Helen  Hunt  calls  our 
treatment  of  the  Indians;  she  might  add  another  century 
and  include  the  Chinese. 

The  first  reception  of  these  ancients  of  the  Asiatics  by 
the  best  men  of  San  Francisco, — or  should  I  say  by  the 
white  devils  of  this  weird  environment  as  best  befitting  the 

345 


346  RETROSPECTION 

thoughts  of  the  visitors, — may  be  better  described  in  the 
words  of  an  eye-witness  than  in  a  report  at  second  hand. 

Albert  Williams,  the  founder  of  the  First  Presbyterian 
church  in  San  Francisco,  in  1849,  a  good  man  of  sound  mind 
and  practical  ability,  minister  of  Christ,  friend  of  the  sick 
and  suffering,  friend  of  the  stranger,  working  for  no  earthly 
reward,  working  with  other  good  men  in  this  sometime  hell- 
hole of  gold  and  gambling,  working  with  Frederick  Bill- 
ings. Avith  Governor  Mason,  with  George  W.  P.  Bissel  and 
others  of  that  stamp,  thus  writes: — 

"Very  naturally  the  trade  of  California  with  the  op- 
posite shore  of  the  Pacific  originated.  Soon  as  the  news  of 
the  discovery  of  gold  reached  its  ports,  ships  lying  in  them 
were  loaded  and  dispatched  to  the  California  market.  Ar- 
riving at  a  time  when  goods  of  all  kinds  almost  were  in 
demand,  cargoes  were  readily  disposed  of,  and  the  vessels 
returned  for  second  loadings.  Here  was  demand,  there 
was  supply.  An  active  though  limited  trade  with  China 
engaged  leading  mercantile  houses  in  San  Francisco.  Fin- 
ley  Johnson  &  Co.,  Osborn  and  Brannan,  G.  B.  Post  &  Co. 
and  others  embarked  in  the  trade.  Articles  of  American 
and  European  growth  and  manufacture  in  the  Chinese 
market  found  their  opportunity  to  meet  the  new  demand, 
products  of  China,  tea,  sugar,  rice,  and  fruits  were  sent  in 
quantities.  This  course  of  trade  became  settled,  the  im- 
portance of  the  business  was  felt  and  commented  upon. 
At  length  communication  with  China  by  steamship  was 
mooted.  J.  H.  Osborn  of  San  Francisco  was  foremost  in 
urging  upon  the  United  States  government  the  establish- 
ment of  a  mail  steamship  line  between  San  Francisco  and 
Hong-Kong.  The  end  was  accomplished. 

"Looking  back  to  its  commencement,  it  is  seen  that  in 
the  track  of  the  newly  opened  trade  the  Chinese  them- 
selves came  to  our  shores.  At  first  the  number  was  few, 
so  few  as  hardly  to  attract  attention.  Like  other  immi- 
grants they  came  as  adventurers,  they  were  importers  and 


ASIA   AND   AFRICA    IN   AMERICA          347 

jobbers.  Very  few  were  in  other  employments.  Nearly 
all  were  merchants.  They  were  intelligent,  and  by  their 
orderly  demeanor  they  commended  themselves  to  the  public 
confidence  and  respect,  their  number  steadily  though 
slowly  increased.  In  the  summer  of  1850  there  were  about 
one  hundred  Chinese  in  San  Francisco.  The  first  public 
recognition  of  their  presence  in  our  city  was  made  an 
occasion  of  general  interest.  Consignments  of  Chinese 
books  and  tracts,  secular  and  religious,  having  been  sent 
to  us,  it  was  suggested  by  their  consular  agent,  Frederick 
A.  Woodworth,  that  a  public  distribution  should  be  made 
of  the  publications  among  the  resident  Chinese.  Arrange- 
ments were  accordingly  made  by  a  committee  consisting  of 
Mr.  Woodworth,  Mayor  Geary,  and  Mr.  Williams.  In  the 
afternoon  of  the  28th  of  August,  1850,  their  entire  number 
assembled  and  were  conducted  in  procession,  two  by  two, 
to  a  large  platform  on  Portsmouth  square.  In  their  rich 
national  costume,  not  omitting  the  costly  fan  to  shelter 
them  from  the  sun,  they  were  objects  of  marked  observa- 
tion. In  turn  they  were  addressed,  through  Ah  Sing,  the 
interpreter,  by  Mr.  Woodworth,  Mayor  Geary,  Mr.  Hunt, 
and  Mr.  Williams,  the  several  speakers  united  in  express- 
ing the  pleasure  shared  in  common  by  the  citizens  of  San 
Francisco  in  their  presence,  the  encouraging  omen  of  open- 
ing friendly  intercourse  with  their  country,  the  hope  that 
more  of  their  people  would  follow  their  example  in  crossing 
the  ocean  to  our  shore,  and  finally  charging  them  with  a 
message  to  their  friends  in  China  that  in  coming  to  this 
country  they  would  find  welcome  and  protection.  The  dig- 
nified manners  and  general  attractive  bearing  of  the  China 
boys,  as  Mr.  Woodworth  familiarly  styled  them, — others 
said  they  bore  the  appearance  of  mandarins, — called  forth 
universal  commendation.  The  California  Courier  making 
note  concerning  them  expressed  the  general  sentiment. 
'We  have  never  seen  a  finer-looking  body  of  men  collected 
together  in  San  Francisco, '  it  said ;  '  in  fact,  this  portion  of 


348  RETROSPECTION 

our  population  is  a  pattern  for  sobriety,  order,  and 
obedience  to  laws,  not  only  to  other  foreign  residents  but 
to  Americans  themselves.'  ' 

Such  was  the  estimate  of  the  situation  placed  by  these 
representatives  of  the  American  people  then  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, a  newly  opened  port  of  the  advanced  civilization,  and 
nearest  the  celestial  regions  of  the  cultured  heathen  who 
now  for  the  first  time  timidly  approached  our  shores  in  re- 
sponse to  pledges  of  good  faith  and  courtesy. 

It  was  the  voice  not  of  aliens  or  demagogues  but  of  true 
men  not  yet  demoralized  by  prosperity,  of  true  Americans, 
sons  of  those  who  had  come  for  conscience  sake,  and  had 
called  from  the  wilds  to  all  the  world,  "Come  over  to  us 
and  be  free!" 

It  was  the  voice  of  humanity,  of  fraternity,  calling 
to  the  victims  of  the  old  world  despotisms  and  superstitions. 
More  to  the  point,  perhaps,  in  the  minds  of  these  utilitarian 
occupants  of  the  San  Francisco  dunes,  it  was  the  voice  of 
good  business.  Here  for  the  first  time  in  history  met  upon 
the  most  friendly  and  favorable  terms  the  latest  civilization 
of  the  West  and  the  remotest  civilization  of  the  East. 

It  was  an  opportunity  such  as  could  come  but  once  to 
any  people,  an  opportunity  such  as  the  powers  of  Europe 
would  have  fought  for  if  fighting  could  accomplish  the 
purpose;  an  opportunity  for  the  statesman,  the  merchant, 
the  manufacturer,  the  philanthropist,  the  proselytist,  an 
opportunity  for  us  to  make  the  whole  of  China  our  sphere 
of  influence,  and  give  us  the  beneficent  guardianship  of 
half  a  continent  older  than  England  and  richer  than  India. 

And  we  threw  the  chance  away.  The  insensate  folly 
of  it!  Congress  was  occupied  with  that  dismal  curse  of 
Africa,  the  enslaved  black  man  and  his  master,  and  had  no 
time  to  talk  of  continents ;  besides,  the  celestial  empire  was 
far  away.  The  politician  was  thinking  of  place,  the  jour- 
nalist of  patronage,  and  the  agitator  of  his  dinner;  these, 
the  masters  of  the  situation,  united  their  strength  for  pelf. 
What  cared  they  for  principalities  and  powers,  for  the 


ASIA   AND    AFRICA    IN   AMERICA          349 

glory  of  Yankeedom,   for  the  prosperity   of  the  United 
States,  or  even  for  remote  advantages  to  themselves! 

The  friendly  emissaries  from  far  Cathay  returned  home 
and  reported.  They  told  their  people,  the  mild-eyed 
dwellers  upon  the  streams  of  paradise,  and  the  sterner  in- 
habitants of  the  celestial  hills,  that  the  foreign  devils  lately 
arrived  upon  the  opposite  shores  though  white  and  bearded 
were  not  evil-minded  beings,  but  good  devils,  friendly  and 
kind,  ready  to  share  with  them  their  gold  and  give  them 
their  clothes  to  wash,  their  ditches  to  dig,  and  lordly  aliens 
to  wait  upon.  So  with  the  rest  of  the  world  came  the 
Chinese  to  California,  specially  invited  thither,  though 
spurned  and  scourged  on  their  arrival,  and  for  fifty  years 
thereafter. 

The  Japanese,  their  emergence  from  exclusiveness  at 
the  call  of  Commodore  Perry,  their  marvelous  develop- 
ment, their  deeds  at  arms  and  their  coming  hither  in  un- 
welcomed  numbers  are  incidents  known  to  all,  but  the  story 
of  the  Chinese  in  America  has  never  been  fully  or  fairly 
told.  It  is  a  tale  not  particularly  pleasing,  not  specially 
creditable  to  a  people  professing  broad  benevolence,  love 
of  equity,  and  filled  with  a  desire  to  benefit  the  world,  to 
enlighten  and  civilize  and  Christianize  every  nation  of 
whatsoever  color  or  creed. 

It  is  a  tale  of  patient  endurance  on  the  part  of  a  people 
not  altogether  lovely,  and  by  no  means  altogether  vile; 
a  people  whose  nation,  buried  under  the  accumulations  of 
its  own  numbers,  is  still  dreaming  life  away  in  its  old  half- 
civilization,  and  yet  with  vitality  enough,  with  temerity 
hitherto  unknown  among  its  members,  for  some  to  pledge 
dearly  loved  wife  and  children  for  passage  to  the  wilder- 
ness across  the  fearful  waters,  where  they  might  gather  a 
little  gold  with  which  to  return  and  make  them  all  happy 
forever  after. 

The  rude  encounter  they  were  called  upon  to  undergo 
at  the  outset  with  a  dominant  race,  which  too  often  de- 


350  RETROSPECTION 

lights  in  its  rudeness,  was  small  as  compared  with  their 
relentless  persecution  by  demagogues  and  politicians  high 
and  low,  by  a  servile  press  and  a  thoughtless  people,  all 
under  protection  of  a  great  and  good  government  that  de- 
lights in  dealing  out  fair  justice  to  the  white  man  and  to 
the  black  man,  but  which  balks  when  up  against  the  yellow 
man.  Color-blind,  or  color-wise,  or  color-crazed,  which? 
The  anarchistic  Italian,  called  white;  the  cannibalistic 
African,  known  to  be  black,  fine  material  for  American 
citizenship  even  though  fresh  from  his  native  jungle  and 
of  the  proper  shade,  but  pale  yellow  is  an  off  color  in  fed- 
eral dispensations.  So  decreed  the  sapient  law-makers  at 
Washington,  incited  thereunto  by  alien  agitators  and  a 
prostituted  press. 

In  the  face  of  these  influences  what  could  they  do,  the 
merchant,  the  farmer,  the  manufacturer,  the  professor,  the 
preacher.  A  true  expression  of  opinion  would  bring  upon 
them  unpopularity  and  loss  of  patronage;  it  were  easier 
to  float  with  the  tide.  So  the  iniquity  must  be  continued, 
not  for  ourselves  or  for  the  good  of  the  country,  but  to 
please  the  fancy  and  gratify  the  passions  of  low-grade 
Europeans  who  had  no  more  right  to  dictate  terms  than 
had  those  they  would  drive  away. 

It  was  in  the  placer  mines  of  California,  in  the  early 
gold-gathering  days,  that  Chinese  working-men  first  made 
their  appearance  in  any  considerable  numbers  in  America, 
To  the  somewhat  unlearned  and  inexperienced  mid-conti- 
nent Americans  who  came  hither  from  the  opposite  direc- 
tion upon  the  same  errand,  they  were  a  queer  humanity. 
Eyes  aslant  and  long  tail  of  braided  hair ;  half -shaved  scalp 
with  black  stubs  standing  in  the  scraped  yellow  skin ;  fuzzy 
face  with  flat  nose  and  wide-extended  mouth;  raiment 
brilliant  and  baggy;  shuffling  gait  and  clattering  feet, 
high  squeaking  voice, — this  for  first  glance  and  the  outside ; 
later,  after  many  deep  soundings  for  fresh  iniquities  to  be 
used  in  their  undoing,  they  were  found  to  be  mild  and  un- 


ASIA   AND    AFRICA    IN   AMERICA          351 

offending;  self-centred  and  retiring,  yet,  when  cornered 
ready  to  fight  with  reckless  indifference  to  danger;  hard 
workers,  economical  and  thrifty, — or  as  others  would  say 
low-wage  grinders,  parsimonious  and  niggardly. 

Temperate,  preferring  a  little  of  the  divine  drug  to 
great  measures  of  brain-burning  drink ;  never  seen  stagger- 
ing on  the  street,  or  joining  in  noisy  riot,  or  begging  for 
bed-mpney,  or  lying  dead  drunk  with  upturned  bloated 
face  in  the  gutter  as  their  vilifiers  are  sometimes  found; 
pagan  in  mind  and  morals  and  yet  more  Christian  than 
many  Christians ; — or  if  one  chooses,  opium-smoking,  devil- 
worshiping  heathen, — yet  void  of  small  revenges,  void  of 
the  many  outrages  that  the  white  and  black  indulge  in; 
declining  to  intermeddle  in  politics;  declining  citizenship, 
assimilation,  or  amalgamation;  declining  any  new  religion 
yet  never  attempting  to  enforce  their  own;  declining  boy- 
cotts, strikes,  and  dynamiting ;  declining  theft  of  franchise, 
looting,  and  the  usual  official  vileness;  asking  but  little  in 
the  way  of  free  education,  free  prisons,  hospitals,  or 
asylums. 

From  an  industrial  point  of  view  they  are  the  best  class 
for  certain  work  that  comes  to  this  country,  and  if  our 
morals  and  Americanism  cannot  survive  their  indifference, 
we  had  better  reconstruct  ourselves.  Indeed  that  they  do 
not  desire  close  relationship,  but  are  satisfied  to  do  our 
drudgery,  disturbing  nothing,  stealing  nothing,  and  then 
retire,  is  one  of  the  best  features  of  the  case. 

When  the  American  miners  saw  these  strange  beings 
from  the  ancient  east  pecking  at  the  placers,  they  cried 
"Scat!"  as  to  ground-squirrels  in  a  field  of  grain.  For 
was  not  this  their  country,  for  which  somebody  sometime 
had  bled  and  died;  was  not  this  the  land  looted  from 
Mexico  by  Folk's  politicians,  and  was  not  the  gold  thereof 
their  very  own  ?  True,  there  were  present  other  foreigners, 
who  were  likewise  interlopers,  Mexicans,  Kanakas,  and 
tropical  islanders,  English,  French,  and  Germans. 

The  Europeans,  however,  did  not  fly  away  so  readily  at 


352  RETROSPECTION 

the  shouting  of  "Scat!"  but  seemed  able  to  take  care  of 
themselves;  so  the  patriotism  of  the  Americans  might  all 
be  saved  to  discharge  at  those  of  dusky  skin. 

While  the  yield  was  plentiful  and  the  gold-picking 
easy  it  seemed  scarcely  worth  while  to  quarrel  over  the  rela- 
tive rights  of  American  citizens  and  foreigners.  A  little 
way  back  in  the  Sierra  there  were  probably  many  mother 
lodes,  mountains  of  metal,  perhaps,  from  which  pieces  and 
particles  had  been  brought  down  to  the  foot-hills  by  the 
water  and  the  ice,  places  where  mule  trains  might  be  loaded 
with  gold  and  ships  bear  away  cargoes  of  it.  But  the  gold 
mountains  could  not  be  found,  and  the  weary  prospectors 
came  back  from  their  wanderings,  and  the  miners  returned 
to  their  old  claims,  driving  out  those  who  had  taken  posses- 
sion during  their  absence. 

Other  rumors  of  other  great  gold  deposits  were  heard, 
and  away  rush  the  mercurial  miners  only  again  to  return, 
which  they  must  do  or  starve.  At  first  a  claim  that  did  not 
pay  an  ounce  a  day  to  the  man  was  not  worth  having,  but 
when  forced  to  it  they  were  content  with  eight  dollars,  and 
then  with  four  dollars  a  day,  below  which  returns  white 
men  would  not  work,  though  the  Chinamen  held  on,  scratch- 
ing around  abandoned  claims  and  working  over  several 
times  the  old  tailings,  content  to  secure  even  a  dollar  a 
day.  So  the  Chinese  remained  at  their  gold-gleanings  long 
after  the  white  men  had  given  them  up,  and  still  the  press 
and  politicians  baited  them. 

Meanwhile  among  the  miners  whenever  sport  was  afoot 
there  were  plenty  of  participants.  And  what  could  be 
better  fun  for  a  band  of  patriots  in  defense  of  their  new 
gold-giving  country,  on  a  warm  Sunday  afternoon,  filled 
with  Sunday  whiskey,  than  a  raid  on  a  Chinese  camp  to 
see  the  celestials  fly?  Mounted  on  mustangs  with  pistols 
popping,  away  they  go,  into  the  valley  of  death,  the  brave 
fellows;  when  shall  their  glory  fade?  "What  in  hell  are 
these  heathen  doing  here  any  way,  carrying  off  our  gold, 
and  leaving  only  a  hole  in  the  ground  J ' ' 


ASIA   AND   AFRICA   IN   AMERICA          353 

But  when  it  came  to  knife  practice  pure  and  simple,  if 
peradventure  some  unlucky  wight  got  his  queue  cut  off  too 
near  the  shoulders,  the  raiders  were  always  ready  to  apolo- 
gize for  the  mistake  like  gentlemen. 

No  one  dare  frown  and  say  "infamous"  on  their  re- 
turn, and  get  a  pistol-ball  in  his  hat  for  his  pains.  The 
rumseller  would  not  say  so,  nor  the  store-keeper  who  sold 
them  goods,  nor  the  hotel  man,  nor  the  humble  ones  who 
found  profit  in  minding  their  own  business. 

The  aspirant  to  legislative  honors  laughed  loudly  over 
these  brave  exploits,  promising  laws  that  should  fix  the 
foreigners,  and  so  reaping  a  harvest  of  votes. 

After  all  it  was  only  a  freak  of  the  miners  which 
started  it,  and  which  led  to  such  unhappy  results  both  in 
the  United  States  and  in  the  British  colonies,  for  had  no 
steps  been  taken  in  the  one  case  they  would  not  have  been 
taken  in  the  other.  The  migratory  gold-diggers  really 
cared  nothing  for  the  little  that  could  be  gathered  from 
their  leavings;  the  farmers  always  wanted  Chinese  help, 
particularly  in  their  households,  and  few  factories  could 
long  continue  without  them.  The  press  and  politicians 
found  profit  and  patronage  in  keeping  up  the  agitation; 
nothing  was  to  be  gained  by  taking  up  the  other  side ;  there 
were  few  to  speak  a  good  word  for  the  Chinamen,  so  that 
it  was  thought  that  more  were  against  them  than  was 
really  the  case. 

In  the  city  streets  likewise,  Johns  and  demijons  appeared 
as  funny  fellows  as  they  with  their  almond-eyes  and  pig- 
tails, their  wooden  shoes  and  shiny  dress,  a  candle-snuffer 
on  the  head  and  a  balancing-pole  with  baskets  over  the 
shoulder.  It  made  them  laugh  and  play,  the  nice  little  boys 
on  their  way  home  from  Sunday-school,  who  would  throw 
stones  at  them  and  pull  their  pigtails,  while  the  big  boys 
to  show  their  bravery  would  give  them  a  kick  or  throw 
dirt  in  their  eyes,  the  tormented  strangers  making  no  re- 
sistance. 


354  RETROSPECTION 

Then  up  sprang  Dennis  Kearney,  out  of  the  bogs  came 
he,  and  his  one  cry  from  first  to  last  was,  "The  Chinese 
must  go ! " 

Why  must  the  Chinese  go,  Mr.  Kearney;  and  by  what 
authority  do  you  come  hither  all  the  way  from  Kilkenny  to 
order  any  one  out  of  America  ? 

"Bedad  they  take  the  work  from  our  wives,  and  the 
bread  from  our  childer,  and  lave  us  no  cesspools  to  clane, 
and  we  wouldn't  clane  'em  if  they  did." 

And  if  they  do  thus  and  so  have  they  not  as  much  right 
here  as  you?  Is  it  the  mission  of  the  American  people  to 
find  work  for  the  Irish?  Are  we  commissioned  by  the 
Almighty  to  provide  for  the  European  and  drive  out  the 
Asiatic  ? 

Suppose  you  talk  less,  Mr.  Kearney,  and  go  to  work. 
Regard  the  Chinese  with  an  unprejudiced  eye;  there  is 
much  you  may  learn  from  them  10  your  advantage  if  you 
will  profit  by  their  example.  There  is  room  here  for  both 
of  you  if  you  will  step  back  a  little  way  and  not  place 
yourself  quite  so  much  in  evidence. 

Yet  ever  and  forever,  on  this  Market  street  sand-lot  in 
San  Francisco  at  the  triangular  Yerba  Buena  cemetery,  in 
front  of  where  the  city  hall  was  later  placed,  mounted  on 
a  drygoods  box  the  cry  goes  forth  from  this  blatant  Irish- 
man, ' '  The  Chinese  must  go ! " 

Standing  by  listening  to  the  chaste  eloquence  of  Dennis, 
and  meditating  thereon  were  the  impecunious  politician,  the 
demagogue,  and  the  embryo  walking  delegate,  for  here 
sprang  up  in  a  night  these  several  champions  of  labor,  each 
to  depend  forever  after  on  the  labor  of  others  for  his  food 
and  clothes. 

Then  the  white  working-man,  who  had  votes  and  spent 
money,  fancying  himself  ill-used  as  he  was  constantly  kept 
informed,  took  up  the  cry,  and  soon  there  was  not  a  news- 
paper or  politician  in  the  country  that  dared  speak  a  favor- 
able word  for  the  Chinese. 

It  was  the  irony  of  impudence  the  appearance  upon  the 


ASIA   AND   AFRICA    IN   AMERICA          355 

sand-lots  of  the  city  hall  of  the  scum  of  Europe  crying  out 
orders  to  the  American  people,  and  stranger  still  that  the 
American  people  should  hear  and  obey. 

The  charges  formulated  against  the  Chinese  were  false 
in  every  particular,  or  if  true  were  not  serious.  Far  worse 
might  be  said  of  their  accusers.  All  were  predicated  upon 
the  hypothesis  that  Europe  and  Africa  have  rights  in  the 
United  States  which  Asia  has  not,  and  that  it  is  our  duty 
as  between  the  Irish  and  the  Chinese  to  consider  the  wel- 
fare of  the  former  alone.  The  same  line  of  argument,  if 
arguments  such  assertions  can  be  called,  was  followed  by 
all,  sand-lotter,  demagogues,  statesmen,  and  editors;  yet 
the  only  true  reason  why  the  presence  of  the  Asiatic  among 
us  was  undesirable  was  because  he  did  not  vote,  although 
none  of  them  took  the  trouble  so  to  state  it. 

If  all  these  fatuous  charges  failed  to  convince,  the 
demagogues  would  sometimes  fall  back  upon  the  truth,  and 
give  the  real  reasons  why  they  opposed  the  coming  of  the 
Asiatics,  which  were  solely  individual  and  selfish — it  would 
not  pay  them  to  do  otherwise. 

Even  the  white  working-man  did  not  care  how  many  of 
these  little  yellow  things  came  to  America,  well  knowing 
they  were  no  match  for  him,  until  he  was  persuaded  by  his 
masters,  the  politicians  and  labor  leaders,  that  some  sort 
of  wrong  was  being  perpetrated  against  him.  Then  on 
the  sand-lots,  the  intelligence  thence  radiating  throughout 
the  state,  throughout  the  world,  the  Chinese  were  every- 
thing that  was  wicked  and  undesirable,  while  their  virtues 
were  turned  into  grossest  vice.  "The  Chinese  must  go!" 
cried  Dennis,  demagogues  repeating,  "The  Chinese  must 
go ! "  a  subservient  press  echoing  ' '  must  go ' '  and  from  dis- 
tant Washington  the  wail  of  elusive  votes  ' '  must  go ! " 

Ah,  men  of  sense,  is  this  your  boasted  republicanism,  a 
government  by  the  people  for  the  people?  Rather  a  gov- 
ernment by  wild  Irishmen,  for  wild  Irishmen  and  self- 
serving  labor  leaders! 


356  RETROSPECTION 

Wherefore  it  appears  that  some  of  us  do  not  want  the 
Asiatic  in  America.  We  will  take  his  tea,  his  silks,  and 
his  works  of  art  but  we  do  not  want  him.  The  nations  of 
Christendom  are  willing  to  exploit  his  country  and  parcel 
out  his  lands  among  them,  retaining  the  inhabitants  to 
work  them,  though  they  abhor  slavery,  unless  it  be  such 
slavery  as  India  enjoys. 

Should  admittance  to  the  celestial  lands  on  these  or 
other  satisfactory  terms  be  denied  them,  they  could  bat- 
ter down  the  doors  with  their  guns  as  did  England  when 
out  with  a  chip  on  her  shoulder  peddling  her  India  opium, 
or  as  gallant  Commodore  Perry  threatened  to  do  if  the  little 
apes  delayed  him  too  long  while  standing  on  their  holy 
dignity.  True,  we  deny  them  admittance  to  our  shores; 
but  that  is  different. 

What  is  the  matter  with  the  Chinese  working-man  ?  Is 
he  lazy  and  ultra-amorous  like  the  negro,  anarchistic  dirty 
and  revengeful  like  the  Italian,  thieving  and  vermiparous 
like  the  Slav,  or  impudent  and  intermeddling  like  the  Celt 
and  Teuton? 

Are  not  their  merchants  as  honorable  as  our  high-crime 
bankers  and  corporate  capitalists,  and  are  their  dens  of  vice 
more  repulsive  than  our  Barbary  coast  and  classic  Tender- 
loin? Is  it  because  they  are  not  quarrelsome,  do  not  in- 
dulge in  street  brawls,  or  stagger  about  drunk  in  public 
places,  or  fill  our  hospitals  and  penitentiaries  that  we  so 
dislike  them? 

The  Chinese  will  not  amalgamate  we  are  told.  They 
care  nothing  for  our  doctrine  of  race  suicide ;  they  will  not 
make  love  to  our  matrons  nor  marry  our  maids,  nor  breed 
a  few  millions  of  yellow  piccaninnies  for  American  citizen- 
ship. 

They  will  not  assimilate  politically;  they  do  not  care  to 
become  voters,  play  policeman,  or  lean  upon  a  shovel-handle 
over  public  works  at  three  dollars  a  day.  They  do  not  care 
to  control  whiskey-shops,  guard  gambling  dens,  or  protect 
restaurant  palaces  of  ill-fame;  they  do  not  care  to  steal  a 


ASIA    AND    AFRICA    IN    AMERICA  357 

franchise,  or  loot  the  public  treasury,  or  buy  a  seat  in  the 
United  States  senate.  They  do  not  care  for  our  cathedrals, 
but  prefer  their  Josh  house  with  its  thirty  thousand  devils. 
They  love  their  own  country  better  than  ours;  being  out- 
siders and  un-American,  they  only  wish  to  return  to  their 
own  country  at  the  proper  time,  failing  in  which  their 
bones  must  be  made  into  a  fragrant  little  package  and  sent 
there. 

Lacking  these  accomplishments,  lacking  the  essentials 
of  American  citizenship,  the  lords  high  demagogue  of  the 
nation  adopt  the  proper  means  to  efface  them,  and  with 
their  effacement  to  efface  the  most  promising  industries  of 
western  America,  delaying  economic  development  for  half 
a  century  if  not  for  all  time. 

The  truth  is  that  for  common  labor,  factory  work,  and 
fruit  farming,  industries  necessary  to  our  civilization  but 
which  cannot  pay  a  high  wage  and  live,  and  which  first- 
class  American  artisans  and  mechanics  will  not  touch  at  any 
price,  the  Chinaman  has  no  equal.  He  is  faithful,  efficient, 
and  honest;  he  is  cleanly,  thrifty,  and  decent. 

His  alleged  faults  are  among  his  most  valued  qualities. 
The  fact  that  he  does  more  work  for  less  pay,  that  he  saves 
his  earnings  and  in  sickness  becomes  a  charge  to  no  one, 
and  that  he  has  no  desire  to  mix  in  society  or  intermeddle 
in  politics  are  all  points  in  his  favor.  For  surely  we  should 
be  satisfied  with  the  dregs  of  humanity  we  have  already 
absorbed  into  our  body  politic  without  desiring  more.  We 
want  the  Asiatic  for  our  low-grade  work,  and  when  it  is 
finished  we  want  him  to  go  home  and  stay  there  until  we 
want  him  again. 

This  is  exactly  what  the  Chinaman  himself  wishes;  the 
Japanese,  on  the  contrary,  has  more  subtle  pretensions.  He 
is  captious,  clamorous  of  his  rights,  and  would  like  to  be- 
come the  equal  or  superior  of  the  white  race.  He  anticipates 
war,  and  is  prying  into  hidden  things  and  on  the  alert  to 
learn.  He  is  more  frivolous  and  unreliable  than  the 
Chinese,  and  is  not  so  good  as  a  working-man,  but  to  the 


358  RETROSPECTION 

half-stranded  farmer  or  manufacturer  he  is  better  than 
none. 

The  white  race  proposes  to  control  the  earth.  When 
that  time  comes  the  working-man  of  to-day  will  want  men 
to  work  for  him ;  will  he  employ  all  white  labor  or  use  the 
Asiatics  for  some  things?  And  will  his  children  work  or 
remain  idle?  He  will  control  the  tropics  but  he  cannot 
work  there.  Neither  will  the  African  work  tropical  lands 
unless  driven  to  it.  If  the  white  man  would  possess  the 
tropics  he  must  employ  Asiatic  labor. 

We  want  some  men  in  the  United  States  for  work  alone, 
"We  do  not  need  them  all  for  governing  or  for  breeding 
purposes,  least  of  all  low  grade  foreigners,  Asiatic  or  Euro- 
pean. We  want  some  who  are  not  for  ornament,  and  whose 
aspirations  are  to  do  something  for  their  employer,  and 
not  to  overturn  or  supersede  him. 

The  Chinese  are  the  best  material  obtainable  for  domes- 
tic service.  They  are  the  solution  of  the  domestic  problem. 
The  daughters  of  working-men  prefer  factory  or  other  work 
at  a  less  wage  but  writh  more  leisure  and  independence, 
while  the  present  class  of  immigrants  are  not  good  for 
much  at  anything.  More  than  100,000  Chinese  are  needed 
throughout  the  United  States  for  household  service  alone, 
to  say  nothing  of  such  occupations  as  hop-picking,  fruit- 
gathering  and  scores  of  menial  and  mechanical  industries 
in  town  and  country  essential  to  the  comfort  and  prosperity 
of  the  people,  and  without  the  slightest  injury,  but  rather 
a  benefit  to  the  American  working-man. 

And  to  this  labor  the  farmer,  the  householder,  the 
manufacturer  have  a  right,  as  much  right  as  has  the  south- 
ern cotton  planter  to  employ  the  African,  without  whom, 
or  his  equivalent,  which  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  for 
that  place,  his  plantation  would  be  valueless  and  the  nation 
be  deprived  of  one  of  its  great  industries. 

The  American  and  European  are  best  for  high  grade 
work;  the  Chinaman  is  best  for  low  grade  labor.  In  agri- 
culture and  horticulture  the  lines  are  distinctly  drawn; 


ASIA   AND    AFRICA    IN   AMERICA          359 

the  Asiatic  is  good  for  fruit-growing  but  is  worth  nothing 
in  grain-growing  or  stockraising. 

The  value  of  an  alien  element  to  a  new  country  depends 
upon  its  adaptability  to  unite  with  the  best  and  not  with 
the  worst  classes  in  the  community.  The  low  European 
gravitates  toward  the  lowest;  the  Asiatic  does  not;  he  does 
not  gravitate  at  all,  but  remains  here  as  at  home,  stationary. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  assimilation,  assimilation  upward 
and  assimilation  downward.  The  Asiatic  will  not  assim- 
ilate downward. 

If  the  interests  of  the  nation  are  considered,  if  the 
rights  of  the  farmer  and  manufacturer  as  opposed  to  the 
hollow  and  frenzied  demonstrations  of  press  and  politicians 
are  considered,  and  especially  if  the  economic  development 
of  the  Pacific  is  worthy  of  attention,  then  steps  should  be 
taken  for  the  protection  of  industries  vital  to  the  progress 
of  this  section  of  the  commonwealth.  A  system  of  pass- 
ports, or  other  device,  might  easily  be  arranged  so  that 
the  needed  Asiatic  laborers  could  be  admitted  as  required, 
and  sent  away  when  no  longer  needed. 

The  origin  of  the  infamy,  as  we  have  seen,  was  in  the 
overweening  conceit  of  unfledged  Americans  turned  loose 
in  the  California  mines,  and  in  the  aggressive  unrest  of  the 
Irish  transplantation. 

Passing  the  question  of  the  tacit  consent  of  the  United 
States  to  the  unassessed  presence  of  foreigners  working  in 
the  mines  the  American  miner  chose  to  feel  aggrieved,  or 
to  make  a  pretense  of  suffering  at  the  presence  of  inter- 
lopers, especially  of  timid  and  unoffending  strangers. 

In  the  cities  the  crusade  was  continued  with  greater 
virulence  and  with  more  disastrous  effect. 

Impecunious  politicians  standing  by  and  hearing  Dennis 
talk  saw  the  opportunity  for  gathering  for  themselves  a 
little  cheap  fame.  They  could  extol  the  Irish  and  denounce 
the  Chinese  as  well  as  any  one.  Some  of  them  could  even 
shout  louder  than  Dennis.  It  was  but  the  bray  of  asses. 


360  RETROSPECTION 

yet  men  listened  to  the  bray,  shutting  their  ears  to  the 
words  of  wisdom  and  their  hearts  to  every  generous  im- 
pulse. 

During  inflammatory  times  it  is  easier  to  incite  a 
riot  than  to  institute  a  reform.  Both  may  be  at  times  im- 
portant agencies  and  Kearney  adopted  both.  Was  it  a 
stroke  of  genius  or  simply  Irish  blundering  that  with  the 
principle  laid  down  of  " America  for  Americans" — an 
Irishism  truly — the  cry  was  raised  "The  Chinese  must 
go." 

So  it  was  not  in  the  mines  but  in  legislative  circles, 
on  the  sand-lots  before  the  city  hall,  and  in  the  sanctum  of 
editors  that  the  real  baiting  of  the  Chinese  in  America  was 
carried  on. 

It  was  in  the  towns  and  cities  of  the  United  States  that 
the  idea  originated  of  a  crusade  upon  a  people  whose  bar- 
riers of  exclusiveness  were  but  a  short  time  before  broken 
down  by  Christian  cannon  mainly  at  the  moment  for  the 
enforced  introduction  of  Christian  opium. 

An  illegal  foreign  miners'  license  law,  instigated  by  the 
press  and  politicians  and  directed  solely  at  the  Chinese, 
was  passed  by  the  legislature.  It  began  at  sixteen  dollars 
a  month  and  afterward  was  reduced  to  eight  dollars,  and 
then  four  dollars,  but  even  the  last  amount  could  be  col- 
lected only  with  difficulty,  and  likewise  being  a  fraud  on 
the  part  of  the  state  from  the  first,  as  it  was  a  federal  and 
not  a  state  affair,  the  matter  was  dropped. 

Nothing  was  said  about  refunding  the  money  of  which 
the  Chinese  miners  in  America  was  thus  robbed. 

Setting  aside  the  cant  of  politicians  and  the  clap-trap 
of  newspapers,  let  us  look  fairly  at  this  matter  of  Chinese 
exclusion  as  it  was  and  is.  The  charges  brought  against 
the  Asiatics,  the  reasons  why  they  should  not  be  admitted 
as  laborers  in  the  United  States  have  been  and  are  from  first 
to  last  utterly  fatuous  and  fallacious. 

First,  it  was  declared  that  if  they  were  admitted  with- 


ASIA  AND   AFRICA   IN   AMERICA          361 

out  restriction  they  would  flood  the  country  and  extinguish 
us  and  our  civilization. 

Secondly,  they  demoralized  American  labor,  worked  for 
too  little,  spending  nothing,  and  living  upon  too  low  a 
plane  for  decency;  they  were  parsimonious  and  filthy. 

Thirdly,  they  were  conscienceless  heathen,  with  no  con- 
ception of  liberal  institutions,  who  cared  nothing  for  citizen- 
ship and  would  not  assimilate,  socially  or  politically. 

I  believe  that  covers  it  all;  and  the  answer  is  this. 

First,  they  need  not  be  admitted  without  restriction; 
such  a  course  was  never  contemplated.  Such  a  course 
should  never  have  been  allowed  with  regard  to  any  people, 
least  of  all  with  regard  to  the  lower  class  of  Europeans. 
The  Chinese  have  never  shown  any  disposition  to  flood  our 
shores  with  their  people;  they  do  not  want  the  United 
States,  preferring  their  own  country.  It  cost  them  money 
and  sacrifice  to  come  so  far  and  receive  such  ill  treatment, 
and  they  could  not  afford  to  work  for  too  little.  It  is  a 
matter  of  record  that  when  wages  fell  below  a  certain  point 
the  tide  set  in  the  other  way,  more  returning  home  than 
coming  here. 

Secondly,  they  do  not  demoralize  American  labor;  free 
American  labor  is  a  thing  which  cannot  be  demoralized. 
Manipulators  of  unionism  are  doing  their  best  to  demoral- 
ize, to  enslave  it,  but  they  will  not  succeed.  We  want  the 
Asiatics  to  perform  certain  labor  which  the  better  class  of 
white  men  decline  to  do,  such  as  acting  as  operatives  in 
factories  and  performing  all  kinds  of  farm,  fruit,  and  vine- 
yard work,  except  teaming.  The  white  population  gravi- 
tates toward  the  cities,  which  are  growing  faster  than. the 
country.  Immigrants  from  Europe  prefer  the  city  to  the 
country.  White  farm  hands  of  the  rural  districts  as  a 
rule  are  shiftless  and  unreliable,  given  to  drunkenness  and 
idling,  ready  to  stop  work  at  any  moment  and  spend  what 
they  have  earned.  Even  if  they  could  be  obtained,  they 
are  far  less  desirable  than  Asiatics,  who  as  a  rule  are  hon- 
est, sober  and  industrious,  yet  who  require  watching  in 


362  RETROSPECTION 

common  with  the  rest  of  mankind.  Until  European  and 
American  labor  changes  its  mind  and  attitude  California 
must  have  Asiatic  labor  or  give  up  fruit-farming,  wine- 
making,  the  hop,  the  sugar-beet,  and  like  rural  industries, 
as  well  as  any  hops  or  expectation  of  extensive  manufac- 
turing, such  as  will  enable  us  successfully  to  compete  with 
the  rest  of  the  world. 

Nor  is  American  labor  obliged  to  cheapen  itself  and 
live  poorly  like  the  Asiatics  whose  inferior  work  commands 
a  less  wage.  We  have  already  an  aristocracy  of  labor 
whether  we  recognize  it  or  not.  Further,  wrhat  we  choose 
to  call  parsimony  is  really  thrift,  a  quality  some  other  work- 
ing men  would  do  well  to  imitate,  and  as  for  filthiness  those 
who  know  the  people  would  never  make  the  charge. 

The  sink-holes  of  corruption  in  the  cities,  whether 
heathen  or  Christian,  are  about  on  a  level  as  regards  filth 
and  immorality,  while  in  respectable  city  households,  as 
well  as  in  the  country,  those  who  are  forced  to  endure  the 
slovenliness  of  many  of  the  white  servants,  Teuton  or  Celt, 
would  never  complain  of  Asiatic  filthiness,  whether  of  per- 
son or  surroundings. 

Thirdly :  And  here  we  come  to  the  crux  of  the  case,  the 
most  serious  of  all  considerations,  and  the  only  one  affect- 
ing the  entire  Republic.  And  singular  as  it  may  appear, 
the  charges  here  brought  forward  as  defects,  as  heretofore 
intimated,  are  in  reality  the  highest  possible  recommenda- 
tion for  the  admission  of  Asiatics.  They  are  utterly  alien 
in  body  and  soul ;  they  are  un-American  and  will  not  amal- 
gamate. So  we  might  say  of  any  of  our  good,  kind  domestic 
animals.  And  shall  I  be  forbidden  the  use  of  mules  on  my 
farm  because  their  bray  is  not  the  bray  of  Dennis  Kearney  ? 

They  decline  American  citizenship.  And  who  shall  blame 
them,  looking  upon  the  low  alien  of  other  climes  who  loafs 
about  the  street  and  sells  his  vote  for  half  a  dollar  ?  That 
they  decline  this  honor,  that  they  do  not  immediately  on 
arrival  begin  to  study  politics,  should  be  and  is  the  highest 
recommendation  for  their  admission. 


ASIA   AND   AFRICA   IN   AMERICA          363 

So  as  we  see  all  along  the  line,  the  very  charges  their 
enemies  bring  against  them  are  but  a  recital  of  their  vir- 
tues— peaceable,  laborious,  economical,  honest,  sober,  what 
more  should  one  expect  even  of  celestial  scavengers  ?  That 
they  decline  the  use  of  dynamite  to  enforce  their  opinions; 
that  they  do  not  at  once  intrigue  to  overturn  the  existing 
order  of  things,  whatever  they  may  be,  to  swear  themselves 
into  position  with  good  intentions — the  intentions  hell  is 
paved  with ;  that  they  do  not  at  once  seek  to  become  police- 
men, or  congressmen,  to  corrupt  our  sons,  to  proselyte  our 
wives,  to  marry  our  daughters — grievous  faults,  and  griev- 
ously have  they  suffered  for  them. 

They  decline  American  citizenship — the  harpers  still 
harping;  and  little  wonder,  we  say  again,  when  we  look 
upon  its  latter-day  deterioration — once  superior  to  any 
Roman,  now,  largely  galvanized  refuse  from  foreign  parts. 
If  they  would  curry  favor  with  the  new  regime  they  should 
discard  their  virtues  and  adopt  the  current  vices,  cease 
being  peaceable,  laborious,  economical,  honest,  and  sober, 
and  straightway  intrigue  for  power  and  -place. 

Nor  is  it  a  very  noble  figure  American  artisans  and 
mechanics  present  grudging  these  little  pigtails  their  mite 
from  work  they  themselves  will  not  touch,  growling  like 
dogs  in  a  manger  at  those  who  make  their  clothes  and  grow 
their  food,  neither  themselves  helping  nor  permitting  others 
to  help  in  this  most  necessary  of  all  work. 

Let  the  builders  of  the  Republic  alone;  let  them  alone, 
the  farmer  who  provides  the  food,  the  manufacturer  who 
weaves  the  raw  material  into  articles  of  use  and  comfort, 
the  irrigator  and  reclaimer  of  waste  lands,  the  railroad 
makers,  and  the  rest;  let  them  have  the  men  and  beasts 
and  implements  they  require  in  their  work,  and  let  them 
not  be  hampered  by  American  demagogues  or  Irish  agita- 
tors. And  most  senseless  of  all,  while  driving  away  these 
food-producers  and  raising  the  labor  wage  to  the  highest 
possible  rate,  to  complain  of  the  increased  cost  of  living! 

The  city  wage-earner  is  neither  fit  for  farm  labor  nor 


364  RETROSPECTION 

will  he  engage  in  it.  Then  say  the  Kearneyite  economists, 
''If  we  cannot  have  fruit,  and  wine,  and  olives,  without 
Asiatic  labor  we  will  go  without. ' '  Very  kind  and  unselfish 
and  truly  Christian  and  American  spirit.  We  might 
answer,  "If  we  cannot  have  Irishmen  who  will  be  quiet 
and  behave  themselves  properly  we  will  do  without  them." 
Have  our  citizens  from  Kilkenny  any  objections  to  the  em- 
ployment of  Chinese  in  powder-mills,  where  they  are  sure 
to  be  blown  up  sooner  or  later?  Mills  and  manufactories 
require  thousands  of  operatives.  It  is  not  a  suitable  pla^e 
for  boys  and  girls,  for  men  and  women  of  European  blood 
if  we  wish  to  elevate  and  improve  the  race.  The  world  of 
humanity  must  be  clothed  and  fed,  and  there  must  be 
workers  in  cotton  and  wool  and  food-stuffs.  Factory  work 
consists  largely  in  tending  noisy  machines  in  a  foul  atmos- 
phere, and  continued  from  youth  to  age  it  is  neither  im- 
proving nor  ennobling.  The  monotonous  working  of  the 
machine  of  which  the  operative  is  but  a  part,  the  endless 
repetition  of  the  same  motions,  the  constant  alertness  re- 
quired to  avoid  catastrophe,  the  strain  upon  the  nerves 
and  the  rattling  upon  the  brain  all  tend  to  deaden  the 
mind  and  deform  the  body. 

The  average  American  wage-earner  will  not  place  his 
boy  or  girl  at  factory  work,  and  yet  the  average  American 
workman  must  have  overalls.  In  Asia  are  many  millions 
who  were  born  a  machine  and  will  never  become  any  thing 
else,  who  are  little  accustomed  to  clothing  and  who  never 
once  in  their  lives  have  known  what  it  is  to  have  enough 
to  eat.  To  these  factory  work  in  a  Christian  land  with  a 
little  meat  and  Sunday-school  would  be  a  great  up-lift,  a 
blessing  and  a  charity  to  them,  a  benefit  to  a  civilization 
requiring  clothes,  and  a  means  of  boundless  prosperity  to 
an  imperial  city. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted,  with  the  permis- 
sion of  the  gentlemen  voters  from  Kilkenny  and  their  satel- 
lites, senators,  demagogues,  and  newspapers.  Either  this, 
or  let  our  abundance  of  raw  material  go  past  us  to  Asia, 


ASIA   AND    AFRICA   IN   AMERICA          365 

there  to  be  worked  up  by  these  same  poor  heathen  for  the 
benefit  of  the  world. 

No  one  advocates  opening  the  floodgates  to  let  all  Asia 
in,  nor  yet  all  Europe.  But  of  the  latter  it  is  too  late  to 
speak.  The  damage  is  done,  we  have  denationalized  our- 
selves. The  United  States  as  an  Anglo-Saxon  republic  is 
a  thing  of  the  past ;  the  typical  American  is  no  longer  Uncle 
Sam  in  evening  dress,  but  a  stocky  cross  between  Teuton 
and  Latin,  a  little  taller  with  features  less  coarse.  I  do 
not  say  he  is  better  or  worse  than  the  Yankee. 

Though  we  spurn  the  Asiatics  we  send  missionaries  over 
the  water  to  convert  them  to  our  religion ;  though  we  drive 
them  from  our  shore  we  receive  them  in  our  free  schools 
and  universities;  though  we  prepare  ourselves  to  fight 
them  we  show  them  our  arsenals  and  tell  them  all  our 
secrets  for  attack  and  defense. 

Many  good  men  were  led  astray  under  misapprehension 
as  to  popular  sentiment  even  as  to  what  their  own  opinion 
might  be  upon  intelligent  consideration  of  the  subject. 
Yet  it  is  easily  enough  explained,  the  great  mass  of  the 
people  were  not  specially  interested.  But  one  side  of  the 
question  was  ever  presented,  for  after  the  crusade  had 
been  fairly  set  running  no  newspaper  or  aspirant  for  office 
dare  say  a  word  in  favor  of  the  Chinese.  And  so  the 
myth  has  been  kept  alive  for  half  a  century. 

Business  men  in  California  from  the  east  saw  at  once 
the  importance  of  cultivating  friendly  relations  with  all 
the  nations  bordering  on  the  Pacific,  particularly  with  the 
four  hundred  millions  of  Chinese  who  needed  everything 
appertaining  to  the  higher  civilization  which  Europe  and 
America  could  supply — which  Europe  would  be  glad  to 
supply  if  America  would  not.  What  stupendous  folly  to 
throw  away  all  of  our  superb  advantages  at  the  instigation 
of  European  interlopers! 

Some,  perhaps,  may  find  comfort  in  the  reflection  that 
but  for  Irish  agitators  and  labor  leaders,  and  the  indiffer- 


366  RETROSPECTION 

ence  of  so-called  Americans  to  the  interests  of  America, 
the  United  States  could  now  be  in  the  industrial  possession 
of  China,  a  thing  of  more  stupendous  value  even  than 
India  has  been  to  England. 

Yet  even  now  good  Americans  say,  as  said  good  Amer- 
icans sixty-three  years  ago,  "Be  the  first  to  recognize 
China,  her  independence  and  her  grand  destiny.  Let  us 
open  our  doors  to  her,  and  cease  the  insensate  folly  of 
allowing  blatant  aliens  to  regulate  our  international 
affairs." 

If  China  continues  her  progression  she  will  in  due  time 
be  in  a  position  to  dictate  terms  as  hitherto  others  have 
dictated  to  her.  Five  thousand  air  ships  sailing  over 
America  and  Europe,  dropping  bombs  into  the  large  cities, 
would  cause  quite  a  commotion. 

The  Japanese  working-man  in  our  midst  is  less  objec- 
tionable than  the  Japanese  gentleman,  who  delights  in  stir- 
ring up  strife  and  making  trouble.  If  any  Japanese  are 
excluded  it  should  be  the  educated  and  ambitious  class 
and  not  the  working  men.  If  all  Asiatic  labor  is  excluded 
the  result  will  be  an  industrial  paralysis  such  as  has  never 
been  seriously  considered. 

Japanese  labor,  however,  as  I  have  said,  is  better  than 
none,  any  thing  is  better  than  the  continuation  of  this  dog 
in  the  manger  policy  of  union  labor,  which  will  neither  do 
the  necessary  work  of  the  nation  and  of  its  people,  nor  per- 
mit others  to  do  it. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  century  nearly  all  the  Asiatic 
ports  were  closed  to  American  commerce.  It  seems  scarcely 
possible  that  it  was  only  seventy  years  ago  that  Commodore 
Perry  was  knocking  at  the  doors  of  Japan  threatening  to 
break  them  down  if  not  admitted.  Australia,  with  its  mil- 
lions of  square  miles  of  uncleared  brush,  taking  alarm  from 
the  attitude  of  California,  trembling  with  passion  as  be- 
fore some  invisible  horror,  for  safety  shut  her  doors  against 
she  knew  not  what  and  for  reasons  she  knew  not  why. 

We  are  becoming  exceedingly  polite  to  China  just  now, 


ASIA   AND   AFRICA   IN   AMERICA          367 

in  the  hope  of  inducing  her  to  spend  on  world's  fair  ex- 
hibits the  amount  of  Boxer  indemnity  returned  by  the 
United  States,  and  thus  bring  the  Orient  to  America  on 
such  a  scale  of  magnificence  as  has  never  been  dreamed  of. 
At  the  same  time,  singular  as  it  may  appear,  our  treatment 
cf  the  Chinese  landing  at  our  ports  is  more  barbarous  than 
that  of  the  most  barbarous  nations,  men  and  women  are 
regarded  with  suspicion  and  examined  with  rudeness  and 
insults,  like  criminal  suspects  instead  of  respectable  citizens 
of  the  world. 

The  remedy  as  regards  Asiatic  labor  in  America  is 
simple  enough;  if  we  wish  to  restrict  this  sort  of  immigra- 
tion— which  we  certainly  do  wish  to  restrict,  and  European 
and  African  as  well — appoint  a  commission  to  whom  farm- 
ers and  manufacturers  requiring  workmen  may  apply  for 
the  needed  operatives  and  farm  hands,  to  be  sent  home 
when  no  longer  required. 

Japan  awoke  at  the  touch  to  modern  civilization.  China, 
farther  advanced  was  slower  to  respond,  yet  now  bids  fair 
to  surpass  all  others  of  dusky  skin  in  adopting  liberal  gov- 
ernment with  a  progressive  policy.  Africa,  like  aboriginal 
America,  will  never  awake. 

Turning  to  the  African  in  our  midst  we  find  conditions 
never  elsewhere  existing  in  the  history  of  humanity. 

The  Anglo-African  presents  a  pathetic  picture,  a  pic- 
ture more  touching  than  that  of  Russian  Jew  or  Armenian 
Christian.  However  white  within  he  must  forever  appear 
in  black  without.  However  learned  he  may  become,  how- 
ever lofty  his  ideals  or  high  his  aspirations  he  must  wear 
the  badge  of  ignorance  and  servitude,  he  and  his  children 
forever.  God  hath  made  him  so ;  man  has  re-stamped  him ; 
time  brings  no  relief.  It  was  a  cruel  kindness  to  enslave 
him ;  it  was  cruelty  pure  and  simple  to  enfranchise  him. 

Sentimentalists  say  that  our  forefathers  did  the  Afri- 
can a  wrong  when  they  enslaved  him,  and  that  we  owe  him 
reparation.  It  does  not  so  appear  to  me.  Slaves  were  ob- 


368  RETROSPECTION 

tained  from  different  tribes  constantly  at  war  with  each 
other,  as  Mandinga,  Congo,  Senegal,  and  Nard,  each  speak- 
ing a  language  which  the  other  did  not  understand. 

The  slaver  found  the  object  of  his  pursuit,  as  a  rule, 
an  enslaved  cannibal  in  the  hands  of  cannibals,  to  be  sold 
or  else  to  be  killed  and  eaten.  On  the  horrible  slave-ships 
his  condition  was  but  little  improved.  It  was  from  such 
atrocities  as  these  that  the  southern  planter  rescued  him, 
gave  him  work  and  made  him  happy.  True,  he  did  not 
buy  him  from  benevolence  but  for  profit.  It  was  not  the 
purpose  of  the  slave-trade,  the  most  infamous  of  human 
deeds  since  the  coming  of  Christ,  to  make  the  negro  happy. 
Further,  only  a  few  thousand  were  rescued  from  cannibal- 
ism, whereas  millions  became  slaves. 

It  is  right  and  proper  that  we  should  do  what  we  can 
for  the  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  that  unfortunate 
people,  but  not  on  the  ground  of  the  cruelties  or  injustice 
practised  by  others. 

For  if  ever  we  owed  the  negro  aught  we  paid  the  debt 
many  times  in  the  war  which  though  not  for  him  was  be- 
cause of  him. 

When  all  is  said,  the  fact  remains  that  had  the  early 
slave-traders  read  and  followed  the  American  declaration 
of  human  rights,  so  emphasized  by  human  wrongs,  the  pro- 
genitors of  our  Africans  would  have  been  killed  and  eaten, 
and  these  United  States  thereby  have  been  saved  much 
trouble,  past  and  future.  But  fate  willed  it  otherwise,  and 
the  end  is  not  yet. 

Race  friction  will  increase;  there  is  nothing  to  soothe 
but  everything  to  aggravate.  And  so  race  troubles  will 
continue  to  grow  with  the  growth  of  antagonistic  popula- 
tions; serious  uprisings  will  come  and  continue  until  either 
the  black  or  the  white  will  have  to  efface  himself. 

Between  the  poor  white  trash  of  the  south  and  the 
idle  rich  of  the  north  there  are  certain  analogies  as  well  as 
comparisons  to  be  drawn.  The  one  has  passed  the  other 


ASIA   AND   AFRICA   IN   AMERICA          369 

is  passing.  Or  shall  we  say  that  the  entire  south  at  present 
is  poor  white  trash,  that  is  if  work  or  doing  something  use- 
ful makes  them  so.  Privilege  to-day  is  ruining  the  north 
as  slavery  ruined  the  south.  The  idle  rich  are  the  poor 
white  trash  and  slaves  combined,  though  they  do  not  know 
it.  From  the  poor  white  trash  have  emanated  able  and  use- 
ful men ;  I  know  of  none  who  have  come  from  the  idle  rich. 

It  was  right  for  us  to  set  the  negro  free.  It  was  our 
necessity,  not  his.  We  have  passed  the  period  when  we  can 
hold  our  fellow-man  in  slavery  and  live.  But  we  bungled 
more  in  liberating  than  in  enslaving  him.  Brazil  had  only 
to  declare  that  henceforth  all  children  born  of  slave  parents 
were  born  free,  the  parents  still  remaining  slaves,  and  the 
thing  was  done. 

The  tragedy  of  enfranchisement  stares  the  republican 
party  in  the  face  like  the  ghost  of  Hamlet's  father. 

"Were  it  not  better  frankly  to  admit  that  the  freed 
African  in  America  is  a  failure,  and  that  when  made  free 
he  should  have  been  sent  away  ? 

He  is  a  failure  here,  for  effective  work  is  not  to  be  ob- 
tained from  him  except  under  compulsion.  As  an  Amer- 
ican citizen  he  is  a  monstrosity. 

If  we  could  utilize  our  African  citizens  in  factories 
and  on  farms  it  would  be  an  advantage  to  all  concerned, 
but  the  negro  is  good  for  nothing  as  a  working-man,  or 
for  anything  else,  except  on  the  southern  plantations,  and 
he  is  not  all  that  he  might  be  there. 

The  African  is  lazy  and  licentious.  It  is  not  altogether 
the  fault  of  the  white  man  that  he  is  so,  nor  yet  altogether 
his  own  fault.  It  is  kismet.  The  animal  in  him  over- 
balances the  mental.  He  will  work  only  as  necessity  re- 
quires. At  least  three  millions  out  of  the  ever-increasing 
ten  millions  encamped  upon  us  live  without  work.  The 
black  man  is  trifling;  he  lacks  application;  he  has  neither 
continuous  purpose  nor  continuous  effort;  he  is  satisfied 


370  RETROSPECTION 

simply  to  live  and  enjoy.  And  why  not?  Wall  street 
might  profit  by  his  philosophy. 

We  are  told  by  good  people  of  the  sentimental  school, 
as  before  remarked,  that  we  have  wronged  the  African,  that 
notwithstanding  the  clothes  and  colored  schools  we  have 
given  him,  the  lessons  in  grace  and  refinement,  and  the  sev- 
eral other  gifts  of  the  intellectual  life,  to  say  nothing  of 
the  bestowal  of  equal  rights  and  American  citizenship,  that 
we  are  still  in  his  debt. 

This  is  discouraging. 

To  our  fair  land  of  America  he  was  brought  a  captive — 
a  happy  captive  one  would  think — and  in  a  genial  clime 
was  given  work,  not  too  severe,  as  the  change  from  meat 
diet  to  corn  must  be  considered,  and  though  for  wholesome 
discipline  cut  with  the  whip  a  little  sometimes  when  he 
moved  too  slowly. 

And  on  his  part,  did  he  pine  away  and  grow  pale  under 
his  inhuman  wrongs  1  Ah,  no !  He  laughed  and  grew  fat, 
threw  care  to  the  winds,  and  slept  undisturbed  by  thoughts 
of  having  to  go  into  the  boiling  pot  for  somebody's  break- 
fast in  the  morning.  Thus  on  these  southern  plantations 
for  a  century  or  more  he  was  made  the  happiest  of  mor- 
tals, as  indeed  from  first  to  last  he  was  the  most  for- 
tunate. His  troubles  came  with  emancipation;  more  came 
with  enfranchisement;  but  he  had  to  be  emancipated;  it 
was  necessity;  civilization  must  be  allowed  to  move  on  un- 
obstructed. 

We  did  more  than  that.  We  gave  him  religion,  which 
he  took  to  greedily.  We  gave  him  his  freedom,  but  he  did 
not  know  what  to  with  it,  and  he  gained  from  it  no  new 
happiness.  We  gave  him  American  citizenship,  the  cheap- 
est thing  we  had — what  was  left  over  after  supplying  the 
Europeans,  and  which  the  Chinese  would  not  take.  And 
with  the  franchise  in  his  pocket,  price  of  votes  from  fifty 
cents  to  two  dollars,  he  was  left  to  propagate  piccaninnies 
and  idle  life  away  in  peace  and  happiness. 

However  horrid  the  crime  of  human  slavery,  however 


ASIA   AND   AFRICA    IN   AMERICA          371 

repulsive  in  all  its  forms  and  unprofitable  in  its  operations, 
the  fact  remains  that  the  negro  was  never  so  well  off,  «o 
happy  and  contented  as  when  he  was  the  chattel  of  the 
chivalrous  south.  It  was  as  if  God's  curse  of  Canaan  was 
but  a  covert  benediction,  for  until  he  found  the  blessings 
of  bondage  in  North  America  his  lot  was  truly  a  piteous 
one,  a  savage,  and  the  master  or  the  slave  of  savages. 

A  million  of  the  finest  young  men  the  sun  ever  shone 
upon,  slaughtered  because  of  these  Africans,  and  some  bil- 
lions of  money  and  property  sacrificed — all  together  more 
than  the  whole  continent  of  Africa  and  all  its  people  are 
worth.  I  should  call  the  debt  paid,  if  indeed  it  ever  existed. 

We  are  a  queer  lot,  we  Yankees,  in  common  with  the 
rest  of  the  world ;  even  the  best  of  us,  the  Boston  sort,  are 
sometimes  a  little  queer,  as  when  we  mob  William  Lloyd 
Garrison  and  Wendell  Phillips  for  speaking  abolitionism 
that  hurts  our  trade  in  the  south,  whilom  taking  the  black 
man  in  our  arms  when  that  helps  trade  in  the  north  or 
soothes  our  conscience  in  the  sanctuary. 

In  all  this  I  mean  no  unkindness  to  the  negro,  and  offer 
no  excuse  for  his  enslavement.  I  have  never  forgotten  his 
wrongs  as  they  were  told  to  me  at  my  mother's  knee.  I 
have  never  wavered  in  my  loyalty  to  him  since  as  a  small 
boy  I  used  to  drive  wagon  loads  of  him  on  his  way  to  free- 
dom hidden  under  the  straw,  but  I  cannot  change  from  hot 
to  cold  and  back  again  so  often  or  so  quickly  as  some  of  my 
super-sensitive  friends. 

The  boy,  becoming  man,  though  always  anti-slavery, 
was  never  so  rabid  an  abolitionist  as  were  his  parents  and 
others  of  his  native  town.  He  could  no  more  join  the  mob 
in  pelting  anti-slavery  speakers  with  stones  or  rotten  eggs 
than  he  could  later,  dissolved  in  a  spasm  of  repentant  senti- 
mentalism,  clasp  to  his  bosom  the  bad-smelling  black  man, 
or  set  him  up  as  a  ruler  over  his  former  masters. 

One  of  the  most  intricate  problems  of  population  before 
the  American  people,  and  one  likely  to  be  with  us,  is  that 


372  RETROSPECTION 

of  the  African.  The  subject  varies  with  the  varying  mood 
of  the  American  mind,  sentimentalism  having  entered  into 
it  largely  of  late.  Every  one  knows  that  as  an  economic 
asset  the  freed  slave  diminished  in  value,  while  in  the  end 
the  employer  gained,  as  free  labor  is  cheaper  than  slave 
labor. 

The  relative  influence  for  good  or  evil  of  the  African, 
the  Asiatic,  and  the  European  in  our  midst  lies  chiefly  in 
the  difference  between  adoption  and  absorption.  If  we 
could  disabuse  our  minds  of  the  sentiment  that  it  is  neces- 
sary forever  to  debase  American  blood  and  institutions  by 
the  infusion  of  low  alien  elements,  whether  in  colors  black, 
white,  or  yellow,  receive  and  hold  foreigners  as  foreigners 
for  whatsoever  they  prove  themselves  to  be  worth,  not 
necessarily  to  be  admitted  into  our  political  household  as 
members  with  all  rights  and  privileges;  assigning  them 
their  proper  place,  treating  them  fairly,  without  being 
forced  to  divide  and  re-divide  with  them  our  patrimony, 
we  might  better  be  able  to  preserve  our  own  integrity  while 
giving  higher  service  to  them. 

The  great  mistake  has  been  in  religiously  or  sentiment- 
ally regarding  this  Republic,  its  lands  and  institutions,  as 
the  world's  common  property.  So  long  as  the  land  was 
limitless,  and  better  inhabited  than  lying  waste,  and  our 
liberal  principles  and  free  institutions  preserved  in  their 
integrity  by  the  inherent  force  that  originated  them,  the 
constant  dilution  has  been  endurable.  But  it  cannot  always 
last.  How  fast  and  how  far  in  one  brief  century  have  we 
drifted  from  the  plans  and  purposes  of  the  founders  of 
this  Republic!  We  have  made  ten  millions  of  negroes,  of 
a  servile  race  and  antecedents,  whose  fathers  were  slaves 
and  themselves  in  intellect,  in  natural  proclivities,  not  too 
far  removed  from  the  jungles  of  Africa,  our  equals,  politi- 
cally and  some  would  have  it  so  socially  were  it  possible — a 
blot  upon  our  name  and  nation,  and  now  we  know  not  what 
to  do  with  them.  "We  cannot  kill  them,  or  lose  them,  and 


ASIA  AND   AFRICA   IN   AMERICA          373 

they  will  not  be  driven  by  any  force  at  our  present  com- 
mand to  herd  themselves  on  some  distant  island  or  con- 
tinent. 

Further,  we  do  not  need  the  negro  for  any  purpose, 
and  never  shall.  We  did  not  need  the  Indian  and  so  elim- 
inated him.  We  cannot  so  dispose  of  the  negro.  He  is 
too  incompetent  and  unreliable  for  any  use;  as  a  citizen 
of  the  commonwealth  he  is  an  unmitigated  nuisance,  and 
judging  from  the  past  he  will  so  remain.  The  ultra  sus- 
ceptible, who  alternately  scourge  and  weep  will  say  other- 
wise, but  the  facts  stand  plainly  out  that  he  who  runs  may 
read  if  he  chooses.  Neither  do  we  need  any  more  of  the 
scum  of  Europe.  But  we  do  need  the  Asiatic,  not  for  his 
society  or  citizenship,  not  to  marry  our  daughters  or 
manage  our  government,  but  for  work,  work  which  our 
citizens,  whether  African  or  Anglo-Saxon,  will  not  do. 
Agriculture  and  manufactures  both  languish  for  lack  of 
laborers,  and  illogical  as  it  may  be  and  strangely  absurd, 
the  government  selects  its  foreign  population  not  by  merit 
or  capability,  but  by  color;  the  white  and  black  may  come 
but  not  the  yellow.  The  only  class  the  labor  leaders  fear, 
because  of  its  competency,  because  they  think  it  is  the  only 
labor  that  can  compete  with  or  break  up  their  labor 
monopoly.  Docile  statesmen,  demagogues,  and  unprin- 
cipled agitators  acquiesce  and  aid  for  patronage  or  some 
other  selfish  motives.  Meanwhile  the  whole  country,  labor- 
ers and  high  livers  alike,  cries  out  against  the  high  prices 
of  food.  Labor,  ever  insistent  in  its  demands  for  more,  is 
cutting  its  own  throst  by  killing  the  industries  by  which 
it  lives,  and  sending  up  prices  of  commodities  upon  which 
depend  the  welfare  of  wives  and  children  as  well  as  of  the 
workmen  themselves. 

African  economics  are  regulated  by  geographic  influ- 
ence. Slavery  never  could  have  flourished  in  the  northern 
states,  even  if  the  people  had  been  in  favor  of  it.  Neither 
is  the  free  negro  of  much  use  anywhere  except  on  the  plan- 
tations of  the  south. 
13 


374  RETROSPECTION 

As  a  laborer,  bond  or  free,  the  negro  is  of  economic 
value  only  in  certain  localities  and  under  certain  condi- 
tions. The  labor  must  be  agricultural .  and  upon  a  large 
scale,  so  that  he  can  be  worked  in  gangs  under  the  eye  of 
an  overseer.  Then  he  needs  to  live  in  a  warm  climate. 
The  cotton  and  tobacco  fields  of  the  south  alone  meet  his 
requirements.  In  plantation  life  alone  he  finds  happiness. 
To  live  together  under  compulsion  on  some  allotted  terri- 
tory would  not  suit  the  Americanized  negro.  He  depends 
upon  the  white  man  to  do  his  mental  work,  his  thinking  and 
managing  for  him,  preferring  himself  only  to  serve.  He 
is  by  nature  and  habit  a  servant,  not  alone  because  of  his 
long  period  of  enslavement,  but  because  of  his  mental  in- 
feriority. 

There  are  those  who  claim  for  the  African  race  an  in- 
tellectual equality  with  Europeans,  but  they  make  out  a 
poor  case  of  it.  Even  to  Asiatics  the  Africans  are  inferior 
in  every  respect,  else  why  when  every  opportunity  and  en- 
couragement was  given  them  did  they  remain  stationary, 
when  Japan  surged  forward  to  the  front  the  moment  her 
reluctant  doors  were  forced  open  by  western  civilization? 

Finally,  as  a  last  word  to  the  fathers  of  our  future,  if 
you  wish  to  keep  your  Republic  sweet  and  clean  you  will 
not  be  forever  emptying  into  it  the  cesspools  of  Europe, 
forbidding  even  celestials  to  come  in  and  scrub. 


CHAPTER   XX 

THE    THROES    OP    LABOR 

OUT  of  great  tribulation  come  the  issues  of  life.  And 
when  we  look  back  and  see  how  unnecessary  was  all 
the  sore  travail  which  we  had  brought  upon  ourselves,  how 
the  results  would  have  been  quite  the  same,  or  better,  had 
we  possessed  our  souls  in  patience,  waiting  on  time,  the 
great  deliverer,  we  are  ready  to  agree  with  the  preacher, 
to  take  our  portion  and  rejoice  in  our  labor. 

This  was  the  conclusion  arrived  at  by  supreme  wisdom 
several  thousand  years  ago  and  it  stands  good  to-day.  Is 
religion,  for  example,  any  better,  or  purer,  or  clearer  for 
all  the  fantastic  and  insane  capers  it  has  cut,  for  all  the 
foolery  it  still  indulges  in,  for  all  the  bloody  battles  and 
merciless  persecutions  it  has  given  and  received,  and  for 
all  the  horrible  atrocities  committed  in  its  name? 

Labor  has  always  been  under  a  cloud,  placed  there  by 
wicked  and  cruel  men,  who  seized  the  power  and  placed  it 
in  circumscription.  Emerging  now  for  the  first  time  in 
history  from  its  low  estate,  and  taking  its  rightful  place 
among  the  honorable  things  of  earth,  a  proper  acknowledg- 
ment is  due  to  those  who  first  entered  the  arena  and  fought 
its  battles,  even  to  the  unsavory  walking  delegate.  Him 
and  all  those  of  single  heart  and  faithful  purpose  who 
came  after  him,  assisting  in  the  emancipation,  we  hold  in 
grateful  esteem. 

Presently  there  crept  into  the  ranks  men  of  evil  mind 
who  saw  and  seized  the  opportunity  of  self-advancement 
by  making  themselves  masters  of  the  situation.  By  con- 
trolling labor  they  could  control  capital,  and  thence  pro- 
ceed to  dominate  government  and  society. 

376 


376  RETROSPECTION 

The  militant  attitude  of  labor  toward  all  other  economic 
forces  with  which  it  should  be  in  harmony  is  but  another 
illustration  of  the  universality  of  oppugnant  powers  in  the 
progress  of  mankind.  Capital,  equally  militant  as  cour- 
age comes  to  it,  prefers  peace,  though  as  it  gathers  strength 
it  becomes  subtly  aggressive. 

In  mediaeval  times  the  overlord  held  the  laborer  in  a 
state  of  serfdom,  but  as  the  centuries  passed  by  an  ever- 
changing  environment  wore  upon  the  old  heredity  and  de- 
veloped a  new  individualism,  only  in  its  turn  to  disappear 
before  the  superior  powers  of  combination,  destined  hence- 
forth to  dominate  all  economic  enterprise. 

Meanwhile  labor  comes  to  the  front  and  asserts  itself, 
and  men  see  and  acknowledge  that  in  labor  alone  is  the  re- 
demption of  the  race,  that  labor  not  luxury  is  civilization. 
All  nature  works,  and  wrhen  work  ceases  it  is  death.  The 
idle  rich  and  the  idle  poor  alike  stagnate. 

Capital,  the  product  of  labor,  growing  stronger  with  ac- 
cumulations and  combinations,  becomes  arrogant  and  dom- 
inates all  industries ;  but  as  capital  can  do  nothing  without 
labor,  it  becomes  timid  before  the  leaders  of  labor,  who 
make  it  their  business  to  influence  labor,  not  for  its  own 
good  but  for  the  benefit  of  the  leaders. 

Thus  labor  in  its  turn  becomes  arrogant  in  forcing 
humiliating  restrictions  upon  capital,  and  transforming 
the  employers  of  labor  into  a  condition  of  subserviency  as 
humiliating  as  it  is  unprofitable.  It  rises  at  first  in  self- 
defense  to  an  aggressive  self-consciousness,  increasing  its 
demands  until  it  becomes  a  tyrannizing  force  with  result- 
ant evils  greater  than  any  threatened  by  capital. 

Capital  is  coercive  as  conditions  give  it  courage;  it  pre- 
sents a  hostile  front  only  when  it  has  the  advantage;  at 
heart  capital  is  cowardly,  and  waits  in  secret  to  increase  its 
store  in  safety. 

Labor  is  likewise  timid  when  standing  alone,  and  thus 
designing  men  have  found  it,  and  now  manipulate  it  to 
suit  their  purposes.  Two-thirds  of  the  wealth  produced 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  377 

by  labor  in  the  United  States  goes  to  men  who  combine 
capital  and  exploit  labor. 

It  is  idle  appealing  to  either  side  on  any  other  ground 
than  that  of  expediency.  There  is  no  room  here  for  altru- 
istic ideals,  no  community  ground  for  capital  and  labor 
where  humanity  may  sit  awhile  and  dream. 

Human  intercourse  is  conducted  largely  upon  trust. 
Every  man  is  obliged  to  some  extent  to  confide  certain  of 
his  interests  to  every  other  man,  whether  he  wills  it  so  or 
not.  Therefore  fair  dealing  is  the  best  business  policy.  By 
dealing  fairly  with  others  we  place  them  under  obligations 
to  deal  fairly  with  us.  If  we  cheat  we  must  expect  to  be 
cheated;  if  we  overreach  we  must  expect  to  be  beaten  in 
time. 

It  is  poor  policy  for  the  wage-earner  or  any  one  to  shirk. 
You  do  not  say  to  the  young  man  for  whom  you  wish  suc- 
cess, "Now,  my  boy,  look  out  that  your  employer  doesn't 
get  the  better  of  you.  Do  for  him  as  little  as  possible,  and 
get  out  of  him  all  you  can."  For  you  know  that  such  a 
policy  is  neither  economy,  nor  thrift,  nor  good  business. 

The  fair-minded  citizen  of  sound  judgment  has  no  more 
respect  for  capital  than  for  labor.  He  sees  in  the  well- 
directed  efforts  of  industry  the  noblest  occupation  of  man. 
He  feels  that  in  the  abasement  of  labor  is  placed  under  a 
ban  and  bars  the  most  favored  gift  of  the  Almighty,  the 
right  of  imitation  in  creative  effort,  the  right  of  the  crea- 
ture to  struggle  upward  and  touch  the  hand  of  the  creator. 

The  fair-minded  citizen  of  sound  judgment  exalts  rather 
than  abases  labor;  he  does  not  advocate  a  low  wage,  a  low 
scale  of  living,  or  low  ideals  and  aspirations  for  the  people 
of  applied  industry.  He  has  no  respect  for  idleness  or 
inefficiency,  even  when  buried  in  riches;  he  sees  in  intel- 
ligent effort  alone  the  salvation  of  the  people. 

The  fair-minded  citizen  of  sound  judgment,  on  the 
other  hand,  does  not  like  to  see  the  working-man  display 
an  undue  degree  of  arrogance  and  egotism,  of  cupidity  and 


378  RETROSPECTION 

selfishness,  of  disregard  of  the  rights  of  others  and  the  wel- 
fare of  the  community  in  which  he  lives  and  derives  his 
many  blessings.  He  would  not  see  him  wreck  his  life  by 
a  grasping  policy  tending  to  wrong  and  injustice. 

The  rapid  changes  in  the  economic  world  necessitate 
new  methods  to  meet  new  conditions.  Just  now  these  con- 
ditions are  abnormal.  They  imply  labor  against  labor, 
and  labor  against  capital,  capital  remaining  quiescent 
through  fear,  fear  of  labor  and  of  the  power  which  labor 
supports  and  increases. 

The  economic  life  of  the  people  groans  under  the  ty- 
ranny of  the  two  great  forces,  capital  and  labor,  each  ever 
seeking  the  mastery,  each  ever  ready  to  crush  the  other  as 
opportunity  offers,  regardless  of  the  interests  of  those  by 
whom  both  factions  live.  Out  of  this  competitive  struggle 
come  life  and  death,  success  with  plethoric  wealth,  failure 
with  poverty  if  not  with  crime.  Thus  through  the  ages  the 
eternal  conflict  continues,  and  will  continue  until  some 
power  stronger  than  either  labor  or  capital  intervenes. 

Power  breeds  arrogance  and  persecution,  and  left  to 
itself  destroys  itself.  Hence,  as  rightfully  we  should  ex- 
pect, the  leaders  of  labor  fall  on  evil  days,  and  unionism 
suffers  in  their  disgrace.  Meanwhile  the  working-man  plods 
along  in  his  new  enslavement,  and  in  the  benefits  he  fancies 
he  enjoys  from  it,  happy  in  the  hallucination  of  increased 
strength  and  manliness,  and  in  the  buffetings  he  is  now 
able  to  inflict  on  his  old  enemy  capital. 

Apparently  labor  is  testing  the  efficacy  of  liberty,  but 
it  is  the  efficacy  only  of  a  change  of  masters. 

When  first  the  walking  delegate,  in  homely  garb  and 
humble  mien,  made  his  appearance  among  the  down- 
trodden toilers  of  the  race,  he  was  hailed  as  an  apostle  of 
righteousness,  sent  to  deliver  the  poor  man  from  the 
clutches  of  the  rich,  to  deliver  labor  from  its  long  age  of 
enslavement  to  capital. 

It  was  the  incipient  stage  of  a  great  reform,  of  a  great 
deliverance,  the  emancipation  of  the  noblest  of  human  oc- 


THE    THROES   OF   LABOR  379 

cupations.  And  to  the  nations  came  the  message,  Labor  is 
our  Lord,  at  once  the  curse  of  Cain  and  the  benediction  of 
the  Almighty,  the  sustenance  and  salvation  of  the  race. 
And  no  longer  were  mere  poetic  idealism  the  sublime  words, 

"Get  leave  to  work 

In  this  world,  'tis  the  best  you  get  at  all. 
For  God,  in  cursing,  gives  us  better  gifts 

Than  men  in  benediction.    God  says  "Sweat 
For  foreheads"  ;  men  say  "crowns"  ;  and  so  we  are  crowned, 
Ay,  gashed  by  some  tormenting  circle  of  steel 
Which  snaps  with  a  Secret  spring. 
Get  work  ;  get  work ; 
Be  sure  'tis  better  than  what  you  work  to  get. " 

As  a  reformation  it  could  scarcely  have  been  begun  in 
a  better  way,  or  inaugurated  under  more  favorable  au- 
spices. It  was  now  some  time  since  labor  had  arisen  from 
its  original  state  of  serfdom,  but  even  yet  was  far  from  its 
rightful  place  as  the  peer  of  capital  and  the  equal  of  the 
noblest  of  industries.  It  was  regarded  with  contempt  by 
an  idle  and  profligate  aristocracy,  who  while  accepting 
without  due  compensation  the  fruits  of  labor,  regarded 
labor  for  themselves  as  degrading. 

I  say  that  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  emancipation  of 
labor  the  directors  and  organizers  did  some  good  work. 
Among  the  self-seeking  and  designing  ones  were  some  good 
men  who  really  had  the  interests  of  the  working-man  at 
heart,  who  witnessed  with  true  sympathy  the  wrongs  and 
impositions  practised  upon  him  by  merciless  capitalists  and 
employers  of  labor.  They  saw  his  helpless  condition  and 
used  the  only  means  within  their  power  for  his  deliverance. 
They  matched  craft  with  craft,  until  they  were  led  on  to 
illegal  means  and  brute  force,  which  never  permanently 
can  accomplish  any  good.  Capitalists  would  as  quickly 
resort  to  law-breaking  but  for  the  fact  that  in  capital  the 
law  has  something  tangible  to  light  upon  by  way  of  pun- 
ishment. 

Times  have  changed,  the  labor  leader  is  no  longer  the 


380  RETROSPECTION 

humble  delegate;  he  has  become  the  arrogant  master,  en- 
slaving his  victim  body  and  mind,  ordering  his  incoming 
and  outgoing,  dominating  his  citizenship,  commanding  his 
vote,  stealing  his  inheritance  to  sell  to  those  who  would 
forge  yet  stronger  his  fetters. 

Behold  your  masters,  oh  men  of  work!  Sit  down  and 
write  out  their  names.  Con  them  over.  Whom  of  those 
among  them  all  can  you  trust  ?  Who  of  them  will  not  lie, 
or  accept  a  bribe,  or  assist  a  dynamiter?  Who  of  them 
when  once  in  office  does  not  disappoint  the  men  who  placed 
him  there,  does  not  fill  with  disgust  the  entire  community  1 

The  tendency  of  capital  in  the  hands  of  shrewd 
financiers  is  toward  combinations  which  give  control  to 
yet  other  capital  resulting  in  monopolies  which  destroy 
the  smaller  industries  and  bring  ruin  upon  thousands  who 
live  by  honest  effort.  The  centralization  of  power  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  unscrupulous  men,  whether  of  labor  or  cap- 
ital, is  one  of  the  most  threatening  evils  of  the  day. 

Capital  with  its  aggressive  cupidity  does  not  hesitate 
to  degrade  labor,  even  to  the  foul  air,  the  long  days,  and 
the  low  wages  of  the  sweating  system,  while  labor  retaliates 
on  capital  as  it  may,  lessening  its  usefulness  by  suicidal 
imposts  and  restrictions. 

All  laws  tending  to  obstruct  or  abolish  individualism 
are  bad  as  tending  to  make  more  mechanical  human  life 
and  society.  We  do  not  want  to  see  labor  cheap.  We  want 
the  working-man  to  get  all  he  can  legitimately;  we  want 
him  to  have  out  of  it  all  the  traffic  will  stand,  but  we  do 
not  like  to  see  him  commit  industrial  suicide,  to  the  ruin 
of  himself,  of  his  employer,  and  of  the  city  or  country  in 
which  he  lives. 

Labor  needs  protection  from  capital  as  capital  needs 
protection  from  labor;  either  will  tyrannize  as  opportunity 
offers,  for  so  men  are  made. 

To  secure  protection,  association  is  necessary;  to  secure 
independence,  labor  must  organize.  But  organized  labor 


THE    THROES   OF   LABOR  381 

is  apt  to  become  despotic.  Labor  leaders  are  not  always 
wisely  chosen;  they  are  not  usually  brought  forward  from 
the  higher  ranges  of  mind  or  morals.  They  are  apt  to  be 
blatant  in  speech  and  brutal  in  methods,  arrogant  in  assert- 
ing their  own  rights  and  indifferent  as  to  the  rights  of 
others;  too  blind  often  to  see  their  own  suicidal  policy,  or 
too  selfish  to  care  whether  it  is  suicidal  or  not  so  long  as 
it  meets  their  more  immediate  purpose. 

As  the  first  step  toward  the  amelioration  of  the  social 
condition  of  the  working-men  the  unionizing  of  labor  was 
a  necessity.  And  unionism  has  done  well  for  labor  in  rais- 
ing wages  and  the  standard  of  living,  which  benefits  accrue 
not  alone  to  the  laborer  but  to  all.  And  in  the  unionizing 
of  labor  there  have  been  engaged  some  few  honest  and  con- 
scientious persons,  but  as  a  rule  the  leaders  of  labor  have 
been  and  are  bad  men.  The  same  evils,  only  in  greater 
degree,  have  crept  in  and  now  attend  the  unionizing  of 
labor  that  appear  in  the  combination  of  corporate  wealth. 

Labor  should  unionize  in  a  way  that  will  benefit  not 
itself  alone  but  the  entire  community.  To  aid  and  not  to 
hamper  progress  should  be  the  first  consideration  of 
•unionism. 

The  labor  wage  should  be  one  that  is  fair  to  all,  high 
enough  to  give  the  working-man  a  good  living  besides  his 
proper  share  in  the  product  of  his  labor,  but  not  so  high 
as  to  kill  industry  or  retard  development. 

If  the  laborer  wishes  to  become  a  capitalist  he  can  do  so 
in  greater  or  less  degree  by  saving  his  earnings. 

Would  it  not  be  better,  fairer  for  both  sides,  to  reckon 
the  workmen 's  wage  by  the  hour,  instead  of  by  the  day,  and 
then  let  him  work  as  many  or  as  few  hours  as  he  pleases? 
Is  it  not  something  of  an  imposition  on  the  employer,  after 
fixing  a  nine-hour  wage  to  demand  the  same  pay  for  eight 
hours,  and  a  half -day  Saturday?  And  is  it  not  an  imposi- 
tion upon  the  laborer  to  restrict  him  as  to  the  number  of 
his  working  hours?  Some  men  can  work  ten  hours  easier 
than  others  can  work  eight  hours;  is  it  right  to  limit  a 


382  RETROSPECTION 

workman  to  short  hours  when  he  wants  to  work  longer  and 
earn  more? 

Two  great  mistakes  the  labor  unions  are  making  which 
they  will  have  to  modify  before  achieving  that  peaceable 
success  which  all  desire,  one  the  adoption  of  a  policy  op- 
posed to  public  interest,  and  the  other  the  employment  of 
force.  Nothing  but  evil  and  discomfiture  can  come  to  the 
working-man  by  persistence  in  either  one  of  these  courses. 

From  equal  rights,  which  was  the  primary  principle  of 
unionism,  labor  now  demands  not  only  special  privileges 
but  the  absolute  control  of  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
others.  As  with  the  domination  of  labor  capital  has  long 
dominated  the  laborer ;  so  now  with  the  domination  of  cap- 
ital labor  would  dominate  the  capitalist. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  in  the  United  States  of  Amer- 
ica the  days  of  coercion  of  one  class  of  society  by  another 
class  is  past.  Moreover,  whatever  is  to  the  interest  of  the 
public  is  to  the  interest  of  the  working-man,  for  more  than 
any  other  person  the  laborer  prospers  with  the  prosperity 
of  the  commonwealth. 

Whether  or  not  the  labor  leaders  actually  incite  their 
subordinates  to  crime,  they  use  every  means  in  their  power 
to  save  them  from  punishment  when  crime  is  committed. 
Instead  of  purging  their  associations  from  evil,  and  so  serve 
their  best  interests,  they  condone  the  offenses  of  their 
people  and  with  lies  and  perjuries  throw  the  blame  of 
wrong  doing  upon  innocent  persons.  This  is  human  nature, 
it  is  true,  but  it  is  very  bad  human  nature,  and  wholly  un- 
profitable. 

The  government  should  recognize  the  conflict  between 
labor  and  capital  and  take  means  to  control  the  situation 
and  so  avert  bloodshed  and  civil  war. 

It  should  be  made  unlawful  and  punishable  for  capital 
to  impose  unfair  rules  and  wages  on  labor,  and  for  labor 
to  engage  in  strikes  or  interference  in  traffic  or  industries 
to  the  damage  or  inconvenience  of  the  public. 


THE   THROES   OF  LABOR  383 

Strikes  are  criminal,  and  should  be  made  so  by  law, 
their  evil  effects  being  visited  upon  the  people.  The  gov- 
ernment protects  its  injured  citizens  abroad,  can  it  not 
protect  those  at  home  ? 

Until  labor  unions  are  taken  from  the  hands  of  irre- 
sponsible and  evil-minded  persons  and  given  legal  recog- 
nition and  government  control,  business  men  still  standing 
palsied  with  timidity,  any  thought  of  progress  or  prosperity 
may  as  well  be  abandoned.  Meanwhile,  so  long  as  there 
remains  left  any  individual  freedom,  the  non-union  laborer 
must  be  left  free. 

I  am  treating  only  of  the  relation  between  capital  and 
labor,  not  the  relation  between  labor  and  the  luxuries  of 
life.  It  is  nonsense  to  talk  as  some  do  about  labor,  about 
being  for  or  against  the  working-man.  As  well  talk  about 
being  for  or  against  the  bread  we  eat  or  the  air  we  breathe. 
Labor  came  as  the  primal  curse,  later  to  become  the  primal 
blessing.  It  is  idle  also  to  expect  or  desire  working-men 
to  live  poorly  and  in  ignorance,  the  result  of  his  toil  going  to 
the  idle  rich.  The  working-man  and  the  labor  leaders  are 
two  different  quantities.  Let  this  be  properly  understood. 

We  all  recognize  the  necessity  of  avoiding  conditions 
which  would  place  the  standard  of  wages  and  living  below 
the  demands  of  our  civilization. 

Labor  claims  that  it  is  not  receiving  its  proper  share 
of  the  returns  from  its  work.  Capital  declares  that  for 
the  product  labor  is  properly  paid;  with  what  is  further 
done  to  make  it  more  valuable,  labor  has  nothing  to  do. 
Labor  says,  you  can  talk,  but  that  does  not  make  it  right 
for  one  per  cent,  of  the  population  to  hold  sixty  per  cent, 
of  the  national  wealth. 

Honest  labor  is  compelled  to  support  not  only  the  idle 
rich,  but  the  idle  poor.  Of  tramps  and  loafers,  men  able  to 
work  but  of  besotted  laziness,  there  are  more  at  large  than 
there  are  good  and  efficient  laborers  at  work.  Unfit  for 
unionism,  unable  to  pay  the  agents  of  unionism  their  fee, 
as  a  rule  they  are  held  off  and  not  allowed  to  work  on  any 


384  RETROSPECTION 

terms  as  long  as  union  labor  can  be  had.  But  as  election 
time  approaches — for  even  of  such  as  these  are  American 
citizens  made — they  are  allowed  to  rest  their  weary  limbs 
upon  a  shovel-handle  over  public  works  at  not  less  than 
three  dollars  a  day. 

Skilled  labor  should  always  command  a  good  price.  It 
is  sure  to  do  so  where  conditions  are  fit.  Food  and  capital 
compel  labor.  The  price  of  food,  the  interest  on  money, 
and  the  labor  wage  are  reciprocal  in  their  relation  to  each 
other;  the  price  of  labor  determines  the  price  of  food  and 
the  rate  of  interest  on  money,  while  food  values  and  in- 
terest regulate  to  no  small  extent  the  labor  wage. 

As  never  before  wealth  is  rolled  up  in  England  as  well 
as  in  the  United  States,  and  the  laboring  man  feeling  that 
he  is  not  getting  his  fair  share  of  it  demands  more  pay. 
Particularly  is  this  the  case  when  the  increased  cost  of  liv- 
ing is  taken  into  account. 

But  the  remedy  does  not  appear  even  with  increased 
wages,  for  as  the  price  of  labor  advances  the  cost  of  all 
commodities  advances  still  more  rapidly. 

We  all  appreciate  fully  the  benefit  to  society  and  the 
welfare  of  the  laboring  man  that  he  should  have  to  the 
fullest  extent  comforts  for  his  family  and  leisure  in  which 
to  enjoy  life.  He  who  does  the  work  has  as  much  right  to 
champagne  with  his  dinner,  automobiles  for  his  wife,  and 
sealskin  for  his  daughter,  as  has  the  man  who  shares  the 
profits  in  idleness. 

Good  wages  are  significant  of  good  times,  and  in  good 
times  capital  easily  increases.  Likewise  it  is  to  the  interest 
of  labor  that  capital  should  be  prosperous,  for  without 
the  employment  given  by  capital  labor  suffers.  Capital 
and  labor  interests  being  thus  so  closely  interwoven  in  their 
action  and  reaction,  one  cannot  suffer  without  causing  the 
other  to  suffer.  The  relations  being  reciprocal  the  inter- 
ests are  reciprocal.  If  labor  demands  too  large  a  wage, 
capital  is  palsied ;  if  the  labor  wage  is  too  low  it  means  dull 
times  for  capital  and  degradation  for  labor. 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  385 

With  a  high  wage  constant  and  regular  work  cannot  be 
expected,  and  regularity  of  work  at  a  moderate  wage  is 
better  than  irregularity  with  a  high  wage.  Where  the  wage 
is  too  high  there  will  always  be  irregularity  because  indus- 
trial development  cannot  be  conducted  at  high  pressure 
permanently. 

From  the  viewpoint  either  of  labor  or  capital  it  is 
a  suicidal  policy  then  of  the  labor  leaders  who  by  the 
high  rates  to  which  they  force  labor  bring  to  a  place  two 
or  four  times  as  many  artisans  as  there  is  work  for  them 
to  do. 

One  of  the  greatest  evils  attending  the  working-man  is 
to  be  without  work,  whether  from  illness  or  lack  of  employ- 
ment. And  it  makes  little  difference  whether  unemploy- 
ment arises  from  stress  of  weather  or  from  an  over  supply 
of  laborers.  He  is  at  his  best  when  he  is  both  for  himself 
and  his  employer,  when  he  has  the  work  for  which  he  is 
best  fitted  at  a  moderate  wage  every  day  in  the  year.  With 
high  wages  and  an  over  supply  of  workmen,  employment 
is  intermittent  and  hence  unremunerative.  It  is  better  to 
work  for  four  dollars  a  day  every  day  than  to  work  for 
six  dollars  a  day  every  other  day. 

Wages  in  England  were  advanced  until  1901,  when  suc- 
cessful competition  was  no  longer  possible.  Then  they 
declined,  and  at  a  time  when  the  cost  of  food  was  advanc- 
ing, which  rendered  the  hardship  greater  than  if  they  had 
been  continuously  maintained  at  a  competitive  rate  from 
the  first. 

Elsewhere  in  the  United  States,  away  from  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Southern  Pacific  railway,  or  other  like  octopi, 
the  four  decades  of  graft  were  the  opportunity  of  the  idle 
rich,  the  nation's  resources  were  seized  and  appropriated, 
and  the  output  from  manufacturing  plants  was  largely  in- 
creased. Combined  capital  introduced  new  machinery  and 
secured  the  increased  profits,  while  labor  continued  along 
in  the  old  way  with  occasional  spasms  of  revolt  ending  in 
successful  or  disastrous  strikes.  Capital  secured  the  profits, 


386  RETROSPECTION 

and  many  men  became  rich ;  labor  meanwhile  made  no  pro- 
portionate gain.  The  rich  retired  on  their  laurels,  and 
now  live  idle  lives,  lapped  in  luxury  and  supported  by 
labor. 

Prosperity  comes  from  the  economic  development  of 
resources.  Our  resources  cannot  be  developed  without 
labor.  If  the  labor  best  adapted  for  the  development  of  the 
country's  resources  is  debarred,  and  there  is  nothing  pres- 
ent to  take  its  place,  the  work  is  left  undone  and  the  coun- 
try turned  over  to  dry-rot.  Which  means  that  enough 
Asiatics  should  be  admitted  to  perform  such  drudgery  and 
factory  work  as  white  Americans  will  not  do. 

The  solution  of  the  labor  problem,  as  in  all  else  relat- 
ing to  humanity,  lies  in  the  happy  mean;  too  high  a  wage 
defeats  its  purpose  and  becomes  prohibitory;  too  low  a 
wage  breeds  poverty  and  discontent,  and  is  debasing  to  the 
human  race.  Work  is  honorable;  it  is  the  only  ennobling 
use  of  time,  and  to  degrade  it  is  to  degrade  humanity. 

As  for  the  unemployed,  if  the  labor  wage  is  what  it 
should  be  and  conditions  normal  there  would  be  no  unem- 
ployed. Of  course,  there  are  times  when  sickness,  misfor- 
tune, or  calamity  overtake  and  overrule,  yet  there  are  few 
days  in  the  year  when  in  a  well  regulated  American  com- 
munity a  good  man  wanting  work  cannot  get  it. 

Thus  the  conflict  between  capital  and  labor  continues 
on  through  the  ages,  as  senseless  as  the  competitive  building 
of  war-ships  among  the  nations.  The  more  the  laborer 
demands  the  more  it  costs  him  to  live,  until  his  demand  be- 
comes so  large  that  the  industry  is  killed,  and  then  he  can- 
not live  at  all.  So  long  as  high  wages  and  high  living  con- 
tinue, if  he  is  thrifty  he  can  save  something  out  of  even 
this  artificial  state  of  things;  but  the  common  laborer  is 
not  thrifty. 

To  enforce  his  doctrines  Cain,  the  first  of  labor  regu- 
lators, employed  a  club ;  dynamite  is  now  the  favorite  argu- 
ment, though  in  so  serious  a  matter  the  overlords  allow 
their  serfs  to  handle  the  explosive. 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  387 

"I  will  dynamite  the  whole  damned  United  States,  or 
I  will  have  my  rights,"  one  was  heard  to  say.  And  the 
whole  United  States  sits  and  smiles,  while  those  who  try 
to  catch  and  bring  to  justice  the  dynamitars  are  vilified  by 
the  predatory  press. 

Whatever  may  be  the  interests  of  one  or  the  opinions  of 
another,  whatever  may  be  the  effect  of  any  system  or  the 
result  of  any  remedy,  the  fact  remains  that  the  leaders  of 
labor  throughout  the  United  States,  as  to-day  existing,  are 
a  curse  to  the  working-man  and  a  curse  to  the  community. 

And  for  the  following  reasons : 

They  set  up  a  vicious  system,  feudalistic  in  spirit  and 
debasing  in  practise,  in  which  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  people  are  usurped  by  designing  men,  who  rule  arbi- 
trarily the  affairs  alike  of  employers  and  employed,  and 
at  their  own  pleasure,  through  strikes  or  other  impositions 
bring  distress  upon  the  entire  community,  thus  becoming 
bandits  of  industry,  of  whom  both  politics  and  ' '  good  busi- 
ness" stand  in  surreptitious  fear. 

They  profess  principles  founded  on  a  conspiracy  of 
violence,  resulting  in  widespread  assassination. 

They  keep  continuously  the  most  vital  interests  of  so- 
ciety in  a  state  of  feverish  unrest. 

They  are  a  standing  reproach  to  our  government,  mak- 
ing it  appear  necessary  to  allow  a  large  class  of  citizens 
special  guidance  and  police  protection. 

They  are  a  standing  reproach  to  our  government  in  that 
they  are  allowed  while  accessories  to  crime  to  subvert  the 
law  and  defeat  the  ends  of  justice. 

They  dominate  all  industry  and  place  development  un- 
der a  ban. 

They  dictate  terms  to  merchants,  builders,  and  manu- 
facturers as  to  their  business  methods  and  the  management 
of  their  affairs. 

They  are  the  enemy  and  not  the  friend  of  labor,  in  that 
they,  first,  enslave  the  working-man,  making  of  him  a  tool 
blindly  to  do  their  bidding;  secondly,  tax  labor  at  their 


388  RETROSPECTION 

pleasure  and  for  their  own  benefit;  thirdly,  foster  enmity 
between  classes;  fourthly,  encourage  resistance  to  law; 
fifthly,  stir  up  brutal  passions;  sixthly,  employ  politics  to 
defeat  the  ends  of  justice. 

They  stir  up  strife  among  men  of  kindred  aims  and  in- 
terests. 

They  foment  antagonisms  tending  to  civil  war. 

They  force  manufacturers  out  of  their  own  city  to  other 
places  where  conditions  are  free. 

They  build  up  rival  places,  while  in  humiliation  and 
despair  good  citizens  see  their  own  city  outstripped  in 
population,  wealth,  and  refinement. 

They  join  hands  with  depravity  and  high  crime  to 
place  their  tools  in  office. 

They  maintain  in  the  very  teeth  of  the  government  a 
wide-spread  association  of  assassins  to  destroy  with  dyna- 
mite those  who  employ  free  labor. 

They  put  in  office  bad  men,  who  are  a  disgrace  to  any 
civilized  society,  who  promote  civic  immorality,  increase 
taxes,  subvert  the  resources  of  the  community,  and  drive 
away  capital. 

They  give  the  city  in  which  they  operate  a  bad  name 
and  shake  the  confidence  of  investors  in  the  honesty  and 
integrity  of  her  citizens. 

They  arrogate  to  themselves  the  rights  of  the  Almighty 
to  determine  who  may  work  and  live,  and  who  shall  not 
work  but  may  die,  forbidding  the  young  men  to  learn  a 
trade  except  as  they  shall  permit. 

They  drive  off  thousands  of  honest  and  industrious 
American  working-men  who  seek  employment  at  a  fair 
wage  but  refuse  paying  tribute  to  the  labor  monopolists. 

They  are  incendiary  in  speech  and  behavior. 

They  are  hated  alike  by  employer  and  employed. 

They  incite  their  tools  to  insurrection  and  then  with- 
draw themselves  from  the  consequences. 

They  know  not  the  meaning  of  patriotism ;  they  have  no 
interest  in  the  country,  care  nothing  for  the  welfare  of  the 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  389 

people,  care  nothing  for  the  working-man,  but  grovel  for- 
ever in  their  own  selfishness. 

They  force  ships  to  other  ports  for  repairs,  by  reason  of 
their  excessive  charges. 

They  have  ruined  the  shipping  industry  of  San  Fran- 
cisco, which  formerly  employed  thousands  of  men,  and  by 
their  extortionate  demands  closed  the  works  where,  among 
other  vessels,  were  built  the  finest  battleships  in  the  world. 

They  claim  that  class  loyalty  is  superior  to  the  law  of 
God,  and  that  to  kill  in  defense  of  unionism  and  the  closed 
shop  is  right ;  that  the  striker  may  shoot,  mangle,  and  dyna- 
mite, killing  men,  women,  and  children  indiscriminately,  as 
in  a  holy  crusade ;  but  the  strike-breaker  is  the  most  abom- 
inable of  wretches,  worthy  only  of  assassination. 

They  aspire  to  absolute  control  of  the  working-man, 
dictatorship  over  his  employer,  and  object  to  any  interfer- 
ence on  the  part  of  the  government  or  the  people.  They 
object  to  free  labor  or  a  free  laborer,  to  Asiatic  labor,  to 
any  but  union  labor,  and  such  labor  as  a  union  man  does 
not  choose  to  do  must  go  undone. 

With  the  usual  cant  and  hypocrisy  of  demagogues  they 
pretend  to  demand  only  what  is  right  and  fair,  while  re- 
sorting to  the  vilest  means  to  secure  the  supremacy. 

While  the  victim  of  the  strike,  with  his  wife  and  chil- 
dren, is  starving,  the  authors  of  the  strike  are  living  in 
luxury  at  the  working-man's  expense. 

What  is  the  remedy?  The  government  has  felt  the 
necessity  of  controlling  combinations  of  corporate  wealth, 
should  it  not  also  recognize  the  necessity  of  controlling 
combinations  of  labor? 

The  steel  trust,  the  sugar  trust,  the  meat  trust  and  a 
score  of  other  manipulations  and  monopolies  have  been 
reached  and  regulated;  why  not  by  the  same  means  have 
regulated  labor  trusts'? 

All  the  money  makers  are  up  in  arms  over  the  prosecu- 
tion of  rich  criminals  because  it  hurts  business.  Do  not 
strikes,  boycotts,  and  other  like  impositions  hurt  business? 


390  RETROSPECTION 

As  the  law  forbids  iniquitous  trusts,  combinations  of 
capital,  injurious  monopolies  to  control  industry,  so  let  it 
forbid  aggregations  of  agitators  for  evil  purposes,  conspir- 
acies for  concocting  schemes  of  retaliation,  threats  of  ven- 
geance and  boycotting  for  the  intimidation  of  legitimate 
traffic,  labor  strikes  to  the  injury  of  the  community. 

Labor  strikes  are  made  in  order  to  bring  employers  of 
labor  to  terms.  If  this  were  all  the  two  might  be  left  to 
fight  it  out.  But  the  punishment  falls  largely  upon  the 
people,  upon  innocent  persons,  who  have  come  to  depend 
upon  the  traffic,  and  from  whom  the  traffic  derives  its  sup- 
port. It  is  unjust,  unnecessary,  and  often  criminal  to  place 
this  imposition  upon  the  people. 

Labor  should  have  at  the  hands  of  the  American  people 
the  amplest  protection,  with  labor  unions  as  free  as  air,  but 
let  it  be  protection  by  representatives  of  the  people,  and 
let  unionism  be  neither  lawless  nor  incendiary. 

Of  course  laborers  have  a  right  to  strike,  that  is  to  quit 
work  whenever  they  like,  but  in  so  doing  they  have  no 
right  to  enter  into  a  conspiracy  to  injure  others. 

If  the  people  have  the  right  to  control  the  monopolists 
of  money,  they  have  a  right  to  control  the  monopolists  of 
industry;  if  they  have  the  right  to  restrict  the  sordid 
selfishness  of  wealth,  they  have  the  right  to  restrict  the  sor- 
did selfishness  of  labor,  and  it  is  their  bounden  duty  to 
do  so. 

For  surely  there  is  no  iniquity  perpetrated  by  corporate 
capital  greater  than  that  of  the  self-constituted  manipula- 
tors of  labor,  who  hold  in  their  iron  grasp  masses  of  men 
pledged  to  do  their  will. 

We  have  suffered  long  enough  from  the  insults  and  im- 
positions of  vulgar  and  irresponsible  leaders  of  labor,  who 
do  not  hesitate  to  jeopardize  the  lives  and  interests  of  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  American  citizens  to  obtain  an  ad- 
vantage or  gratify  their  vengeance. 

The  working-man  should  be  made  to  feel  that  he  is  part 
of  the  people  who  govern  this  country,  and  as  such  he  can 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  391 

be  his  own  master  and  regulate  his  own  affairs  as  well  as 
to  remain  in  the  leading-strings  of  designing  men  and  em- 
ploy them  to  manage  for  him.  He  should  be  made  to  feel 
that  capital  is  economized  labor.  For  there  is  no  capital, 
aside  from  unearned  increments,,  which  did  not  spring  in 
the  beginning  from  the  economized  fruits  of  labor,  howso- 
ever many  times  it  may  have  since  been  appropriated,  to 
be  finally  lodged  in  the  vaults  of  some  skilful  financier. 

Strikes  should  be  abolished,  and  can  be,  if  the  people 
choose,  with  as  great  ease  and  certainty  as  can  be  made  and 
enforced  the  universal  peace  compact  now  talked  of  and 
which  some  day  will  be  accomplished.  There  is  no  evil 
that  time  will  not  cure.  Labor  strikes  are  not  only  an  evil 
but  an  infamy.  They  will  remain  only  so  long  as  the 
people  shall  elect  to  endure  them.  And  when  they  are 
relegated  to  the  region  now  occupied  by  mediaeval  tyranny, 
slavery,  autos-da-fe,  and  the  rest,  men  will  look  back  with 
wonder  at  the  stupidity  of  twentieth  century  society. 

Two  causes  have  operated  to  bring  about  a  condition  of 
things  which  render  it  easy  and  necessary  for  government 
to  take  matters  into  its  own  hands,  to  stop  once  for  all 
strikes  and  boycotting,  and  settle  wages  and  all  the  varying 
issues  between  capital  and  labor  peaceably  and  sensibly, 
even  to  the  servile  custom  of  tipping,  which  has  become 
simply  blackmail  fed  by  cowardice. 

The  first  cause  is  universal  public  sympathy  in  favor 
of  protecting  the  working-man  by  every  lawful  means,  with 
the  full  recognition  of  his  right  to  a  just  share  in  the  wealth 
which  he  creates,  and  a  corresponding  feeling  against  the 
tyrannies  of  capitalists  and  employers  who  have  so  long 
withheld  his  rights. 

Proper  measures  should  be  taken  for  the  protection  of 
the  public,  the  beneficiaries  of  labor  and  capital;  for  the 
protection  of  American  men  and  boys  in  their  constitu- 
tional rights,  the  right  of  the  men  to  manage  their  own 
affairs  and  the  right  of  the  boys  to  learn  any  trade  they 


392  RETROSPECTION 

choose,  and  when  and  how  they  choose;  for  the  protection 
of  the  working-man  from  the  wrongs  of  capital  on  one 
side  and  the  iniquitous  influence  of  the  domineering  man- 
agers of  labor  on  the  other  side. 

It  was  fortunate  for  labor  that  the  McNamaras  were 
caught  and  punished,  else  some  might  imagine  that  dyna- 
miting was  the  proper  method  for  the  vindication  of  rights. 
It  was  fortunate  that  they  confessed  their  crimes,  else  the 
leaders  of  labor  would  never  have  ceased  to  cry  martyrdom, 
the  suborning  of  witnesses,  and  the  bribing  of  jurors  to 
convict  innocent  men ! 

Aside  from  the  organizations  for  secret  assassinations, 
the  open  outrages  permitted  by  the  government,  as  brutal- 
izing strikes,  boycotts,  and  the  interdiction  laid  on  boys 
who  would  learn  a  trade  are  a  disgrace  to  American  institu- 
tions and  a  reflection  upon  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment. 

When  the  labor  leaders,  in  order  to  display  their  usual 
inexpensive  zeal  for  the  alleged  interest  of  their  victims 
propose  the  abolition  of  the  poll  tax,  the  last  pittance  paid 
by  impecunious  citizenship  in  return  for  protection,  in  all 
the  rights  of  the  largest  contributors  to  the  support  of  the 
government,  for  free  schools,  parks,  hospitals,  asylums,  and 
penitentiaries,  it  should  bring  a  blush  to  the  face  of  every 
honest  working-man  that  his  manhood,  his  public  spirit, 
his  patriotism  should  ever  be  held  in  such  low  esteem. 

Boycotting  and  blacklisting  are  crimes  against  the 
rights  of  man  of  which  any  respectable  government  should 
be  ashamed;  labor  strikes  are  a  crime  against  American 
citizenship,  subverting  public  utilities  and  bringing  loss 
and  inconvenience  upon  the  people. 

Early  in  the  game  of  graft  Charles  Francis  Adams  said 
that  if  the  government  did  not  get  the  railways  the  rail- 
ways would  get  the  government.  He  might  now  with  equal 
correctness  say  that  if  government  does  not  put  down 
demagogical  labor  leadership  demagogical  labor  leadership 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  393 

will  put  down  the  government.  For  already  we  have  before 
us  the  humiliating  spectacle  of  the  United  States  begging 
the  labor  leaders  to  withhold  their  hand  a  little  longer  be- 
fore striking  down  at  a  single  blow  the  great  industries  of 
the  nation. 

What  is  American  republicanism  worth  if  it  cannot 
regulate  its  simplest  internal  affairs?  So  craven  is  the 
office-seeker  for  votes  that  he  will  sell  the  highest  and 
holiest  interests  of  his  country,  the  vital  principles  of  prog- 
ress for  his  own  selfish  advancement.  While  anarchy  is 
cropping  out  in  the  ranks  of  both  labor  and  capital,  tend- 
ing toward  civil  war,  the  great  issues  of  the  day  are  with 
the  politician  seeking  reelection  to  office  rather  than  with 
the  statesman  studying  the  interests  of  his  country. 

Europe  has  not  been  able  to  stop  strikes  these  hundred 
years,  you  would  say.  Well,  so  much  the  worse  for  Europe, 
America  can  exterminate  them  to-morrow  if  she  will. 

The  public  need  and  sooner  or  later  will  have  protec- 
tion from  the  leaders  of  labor ;  above  all  the  working-man 
needs  protection  from  them,  from  their  tyrannical  ways 
and  sinister  influence. 

It  is  necessary  that  some  reconciling  agency  should  be 
established  between  labor  and  capital,  governed  by  prin- 
ciples of  honesty  and  justice,  to  formulate  and  carry  into 
execution  laws  governing  these  two  essentials  of  progress. 

Another  reason  demanding  government  control  at  the 
present  time  is  the  ever-increasing  arrogance  of  the  labor 
leaders,  who  have  become  by  their  increasing  strength  and 
unrestrained  lawlessness  a  far  more  subtle  and  insidious 
enemy  of  the  working-man  than  ever  was  corporate  capital 
or  the  employers  of  labor. 

The  working-man  is  the  backbone  of  the  nation ;  he  sus- 
tains its  institutions  and  produces  its  wealth,  while  the 
drones  of  society  sit  back  scornfully  regarding  his  efforts 
while  fattening  on  his  industry.  He  must 'have  his  unions, 
but  unionism  must  be  cleansed  of  its  poisons  and  im- 


394  KETROSPECTION 

purities,  of  its  sharks  and  anarchists  who  stir  up  strife, 
doing  no  work  themselves  but  preying  on  the  labor  of 
others. 

To  say  that  this  cannot  be  done  is  absurd;  to  say  that 
it  will  not  be  done  until  after  open  and  bloody  conflict  may 
be  true.  If  our  government  is  good  for  anything,  that  is 
to  say,  if  the  people  were  awake  to  the  importance  of 
prompt  action,  the  arrogance  of  labor  and  the  artifice  of 
capital  could  be  easily  enough  controlled,  and  better  now 
than  later.  Doubtless  the  labor  leaders  mean  well — some 
of  them — at  least  for  themselves.  It  cannot  be  denied, 
however,  that  many  of  them  are  self-seeking  and  brutal. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  best  of  them  will  oppose  the 
right  and  uphold  the  wrong  in  support  of  unionism.  And 
the  controllers  of  capital  are  worse,  if  possible,  in  all  these 
several  respects  than  the  controllers  of  labor. 

Much  breath  is  wasted  in  discussing  peace  movements 
abroad  while  offering  no  practical  cure,  the  result  being 
the  increase  of  standing  armies  and  the  enlargement  of 
battle-ships  only  to  fall  into  disuse  upon  completion.  A 
peace  movement  at  home,  along  practical  lines,  would  be 
much  more  sensible  occupation  for  Americans  just  now. 

Unionism  is  essential  to  the  independence  and  economic 
well  being  of  the  working  class,  but  it  must  be  recognized 
and  regulated  by  government,  as  corporate  capital  is  recog- 
nized and  regulated,  and  not  left  to  demagogues  and 
dynamiters. 

The  doctrines  at  present  preached  by  the  self-consti- 
tuted apostles  of  labor  are  for  the  most  part  unsound. 
Their  promised  rewards  are  many  of  them  not  actual 
benefits  but  hallucinations.  They  point  to  increased  wages 
and  shorter  working  days,  throwing  the  blame  of  the  in- 
evitable increased  cost  of  living  in  consequence  upon  mer- 
cenary monopolists  when  the  fault  is  their  own.  Notwith- 
standing the  long  and  learned  discussions  as  to  the  cause 
of  the  increased  cost  of  living,  any  one  should  be  able  to 
see  that  it  lies  mainly  in  the  iocreased  cost  of  labor,  as  labor 


THE   THROES   OF   LABOR  395 

enters  into  everything  and  is  the  chief  factor  in  economics 
and  the  vital  quantity  in  production,  mechanical  and  agri- 
cultural. 

Then  there  are  the  alleged  advantages  of  bodily  ease, 
recreation,  and  mental  culture,  which  too  often  find  expres- 
sion in  the  whiskey  shops  for  the  men  and  the  cheap  bargain 
counter  for  the  women.  Let  the  working-man  be  taught, 
instead,  that  his  only  path  of  advancement  is  in  economy, 
not  in  giving  the  least  possible  amount  of  work  for  the  most 
pay,  but  in  doing  all  the  work  he  is  able  to  do  and  in  the 
best  possible  manner,  with  economy  and  proper  culture 
of  mind;  for  economy  is  capital,  and  the  only  pathway  to 
advancement. 

Upon  the  arrest  of  the  perpetrators  of  the  Los  Angeles 
outrages  the  high  priest  of  labor  leaders  cried  out,  "It  is 
a  conspiracy !  It  is  the  assassination  of  unionism ! ' '  know- 
ing his  foolish  charges  to  be  false. 

Labor  leaders  everywhere  then  levied  special  tribute 
on  the  working-men,  and  began  collecting  money  from 
them  to  defray  the  cost  of  delivering  these  innocent  lambs 
from  the  machinations  of  evil-minded  men  bent  on  their 
destruction,  on  the  destruction  of  unionism  and  the  degra- 
dation of  labor,  knowing  that  their  words  were  not  true, 
knowing  that  the  prisoners  were  guilty,  if  not  of  these 
particular  charges,  at  least  of  similar  acts  elsewhere.  Many 
others  of  those  high  in  authority  also  knew  that  the  Los 
Angeles  assassins  were  guilty,  and  that  others  of  the  labor 
lords  were  their  accomplices,  assisting  them  in  their  diabol- 
ical work.  And  knowing  this,  all  the  while  they  kept 
raking  in  and  applying  to  their  own  use  large  contributions 
from  sympathetic  and  unsuspecting  working-men.  Such 
are  the  shepherds  of  the  shorn  sheep  of  labor. 

What  then  is  the  proper  wage?  That  should  be  for  a 
commission  of  upright  and  intelligent  men  to  determine, 
men  appointed  by  the  government  for  every  place,  who 
with  constant  study  of  conditions  and  requirement  should 
declare  as  between  supply  and  demand,  progress  and  re- 


396  RETROSPECTION 

straint,  the  well-being  of  labor  and  the  prosperity  of  the 
community  what  would  be  best  for  all  concerned. 

This  most  important  question  affecting  society  should 
not  be  left  to  floating  aliens.  If  let  alone  the  labor  wage 
would  be  regulated,  like  the  interest  on  money  in  advanced 
communities,  by  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  But  labor 
is  too  important  a  factor  in  economics  to  be  left  to  its  own 
devices;  there  is  capital  on  one  side  and  the  self -consti- 
tuted lords  of  labor  on  the  other  side  who  each  would  have 
a  hand  in  the  matter. 

The  proper  wage,  the  one  and  the  only  one  that  is  right 
and  fair  to  both  sides,  is  the  highest  the  employer  can  pay 
without  injury  to  the  industry.  If  the  industry  is  killed 
or  crippled  from  excessive  wages,  or  from  any  other  cause, 
the  injury  falls  on  both  labor  and  capital.  If  to  the  work- 
ing-man is  given  less  than  the  industry  can  afford  to  pay, 
he  is  defrauded,  and  a  government  commission  should  be 
better  able  to  determine  this  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  con- 
cerned than  a  labor  council. 

Moderate  wages  are  not  the  working-man's  enemy  but 
his  friend.  High  wages,  so  high  as  to  be  unfair,  exorbitant, 
or  more  than  the  industry  will  justify  are  not  of  advantage 
to  the  wage-earner,  because  they  lead  to  improvidence  and 
thriftlessness  and  destroy  the  source  of  supply.  The  aver- 
age wage-earner  with  an  increase  of  wages  does  not  in- 
crease his  savings  but  his  expenditures. 

Illness  and  industrial  accidents  when  unprovided  for 
are  sure  to  lower  the  standard  of  living  more  than  increase 
of  wages  raises  them.  The  tendency  of  all  who  live  upon 
a  fixed  income,  whether  professional  man,  wage-earner,  or 
man  or  -woman  of  leisure  is  to  live  better  with  increase  of 
income  rather  than  save  for  a  rainy  day,  or  for  increase  of 
capital. 

Wage-earners  as  a  rule  do  not  save  money  for  industrial 
accidents  or  illness;  with  increased  pay  they  spend  more. 
Any  little  insurance  they  may  have  is  spent  on  the  last  ill- 
ness and  the  funeral,  and  the  more  insurance  money  the 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  397 

better  the  funeral.  It  does  not  matter  how  you  call  it,  or 
what  arguments  are  used  against  it,  the  fact  is  palpable 
that  a  too  high  rate  wage  stifles  industry  to  the  death  alike 
of  capital  and  labor.  A  too  high  rate  wage  is  prohibitory 
in  building  and  manufactures. 

The  per  hour  plan  is  the  only  fair  measurement  for 
time  work,  and  the  piece-work  is  the  only  fair  way  to  reckon 
the  value  of  any  labor  when  it  can  be  done.  But  because 
it  is  fair  the  labor  leaders  do  not  like  it,  as  the  better 
workmen  secure  the  better  part  of  the  pay.  A  reduction 
in  the  price  per  piece  such  as  will  bring  the  pay  of  the  more 
expert  down  within  reasonable  limits,  would  place  the  less 
expert  below  a  living  wage.  Of  course  a  shorter  day, 
fewer  hours  is  simply  an  increase  of  wages,  that  is  why  the 
unions  do  not  want  a  rate  per  hour. 

The  natural  law  of  labor  is  for  wages  to  advance  in 
times  of  prosperity  and  to  decline  when  business  slackens. 
To  subvert  this  law  and  compel  high  wages  in  dull  times  is 
to  strike  at  the  fundamental  principle  of  economics.  It 
brings  disaster  by  arresting  progress  and  throwing  industry 
back  upon  itself,  when  proper  care  and  conciliatory  nurs- 
ing would  help  to  tide  over  evil  days  and  restore  prosperity. 
Thus  may  plainly  be  seen  the  suicidal  policy  of  forcing 
upon  labor  a  fictitious  value  when  moderation  would  soon 
restore  the  industrial  equilibrium. 

Not  all  union  men  by  any  means  are  in  favor  of  the 
present  labor  restrictions.  They  hate  labor  leaders  and 
abhor  their  methods;  all  the  same  a  good  wage  and  easy 
work  provided  at  hand  seems  better  than  fighting  at  a  dis- 
advantage. Many  are  against  present  methods  as  unsound, 
unnecessary,  and  inflicting  on  the  cause  of  unionism  more 
harm  than  good. 

The  working-man  inherently  and  in  the  abstract  is 
neither  better  nor  worse  than  others.  In  his  occupation 
he  is  for  the  most  part  better;  he  is  better  than  the  non- 
worker,  because  work  is  better  than  idleness;  he  is  better 
than  the  idle  rich,  for  theirs  is  the  worst  form  of  idleness, 


398  RETROSPECTION 

and  because  luxury  and  laziness  breed  corruption.  As  a 
citizen  he  is  not  less  selfish  nor  more  patriotic  than  the 
average  voter. 

In  the  artisan  class  are  many  able  and  high-minded 
men.  The  typical  American  mechanic  has  no  superior  for 
intelligence  and  efficiency  within  the  limits  of  his  craft. 
He  understands  the  labor  leaders  better  than  they  imagine. 
He  deprecates  their  necessity  but  he  sees  no  other  remedy 
than  that  of  retaliatory  self-defense;  to  fall  unprotected 
into  the  hands  of  capital  were  worse  even  than  the  present 
bondage  to  the  labor  lords. 

The  next  lower  class,  the  common  laborer,  is  not  a  very 
high  order  of  humanity,  being  lately  from  the  lower  strata 
of  European  society.  For  low-grade  work,  for  farm  and 
factory,  he  is  far  inferior  to  the  Chinese. 

As  against  two  millions  of  organized  workers  and  two 
millions  of  workers  not  organized,  there  are  in  the  United 
States  four  millions  of  non-workers,  peregrinating  or  fixed, 
that  is  to  say  tramps  or  loafers,  out  of  whom  the  labor- 
leaders  can  make  nothing  and  do  not  therefore  trouble 
them.  It  is  a  small  force  after  all  thus  to  be  allowed  to 
dominate  industry  and  politics  while  the  wealth  and  intel- 
ligence of  the  community  sit  supinely  paralyzed,  afraid  to 
speak  aloud  their  thoughts  and  wishes. 

Less  sympathy  would  be  wasted  on  this  class  of  drunken 
and  diseased  laziness  if  good  people  were  more  familiar 
with  their  tendencies.  What  the  farmer  most  of  all  wants 
and  cannot  get  is  what  neither  the  American,  the  Euro- 
pean, nor  the  African  will  give  him,  that  is  steady,  reliable 
service.  None  of  these  want  work  in  the  country;  some 
of  them  do  not  want  work  in  the  city. 

After  all  these  bandits  of  labor  are  not  so  greatly  to 
be  blamed.  They  are  as  God  made  them,  only  worse,  as 
Sancho  Panza  says.  They  could  do  nothing  of  themselves; 
they  could  not  elect  their  men  to  office,  nor  hold  in  their 
grasp  the  industries  of  the  nation  unless  aided  by  moneyed 
men  of  influence  who  thus  retaliate  on  good  government  for 


THE    THROES    OF   LABOR  399 

daring  to  prosecute  rich  criminals,  and  who  seem  to  enjoy 
their  revenge  until  nauseated  by  the  vile  odor  of  their  own 
making. 

When  they  talk  so  glibly  of  the  enemies  of  labor,  the 
assassination  of  unionism,  and  the  like,  it  is  simply  as  a 
blind  to  lead  their  dupes  off  on  a  false  scent.  Labor  has  no 
enemies,  nor  the  laborer,  nor  yet  unionism  in  itself,  nor 
any  other  proper  form  of  organization ;  it  is  only  the  abuse 
of  these  rights  and  privileges  that  fair-minded  citizens 
object  to>  and  this  the  over-lords  know  full  well. 

Let  us  hope  that  in  time  unionism  will  develop  intel- 
ligence enough  to  know  that  the  working-men  can  have  no 
greater  enemy  than  bad  leaders,  and  that  up  to  the  present 
time,  in  Europe  and  America,  they  have  had  few  others 
than  bad  men  at  the  head  of  their  organizations,  men  ready 
to  sncrifice  all  who  work  for  a  living  to  their  own  selfish 
and  indolent  interests. 

Capital  concentrates  and  organizes  for  the  purpose  of 
exploiting  the  people  and  obtaining  the  fruits  of  their  in- 
dustry without  due  compensation.  Labor  concentrates  and 
organizes  for  the  purpose  of  exploiting  the  people  and  ob- 
taining the  fruits  of  ability  and  economy  without  due  com- 
pensation. 

A  sickening  scene,  and  a  shame  to  any  free  enlightened 
American  city,  what  I  saw  yesterday  on  Market  Street, 
in  San  Francisco,  six  burly  fellows  perambulating  before 
a  clothing- store  softly  crying,  "  Unfair!  unfair  to  union 
labor!  "  safe-guarded  meanwhile  by  the  police,  the  labor 
vote  being  of  importance.  A  sickly  sight,  a  quiet  respect- 
able citizen  hounded  to  his  destruction  by  emissaries  of 
union  labor  plying  their  nefarious  trade  under  protection 
of  the  law  and  in  the  midst  of  a  far  too  timid  and  indiffer- 
ent community. 


CHAPTER   XXI 

MODERN     JOURNALISM 

are  men  who  are  inherently  honest.  Men  made 
I  that  way,  no  one  knows  when  or  how;  men  so  en- 
gendered neither  by  heredity  nor  environment,  nor  by  any 
known  process,  but  who  stand  apart  unfathomable,  un- 
alterable; who  will  make  no  compromise  with  dishonor,  in 
whatsoever  garb,  or  whether  on  behalf  of  oneself  or  another. 

There  are  also  those  who  are  congenitally  oblique,  who 
know  only  perfidy,  never  having  experienced  the  feeling  of 
uprightness.  Of  the  latter  are  the  victims  of  predatory 
wealth  in  and  out  of  the  state  prison;  of  the  former,  well, 
sometimes  one  is  found  in  journalistic  circles.  Yet  it  is 
not  a  pleasant  reflection  that  the  quality  of  unapproach- 
able integrity  is  not  conducive  to  success  in  the  ordinary 
walks  of  journalism. 

Is  it  then  impossible  for  the  owner  or  manager  of  a  large 
successful  newspaper  to  be  fair  and  truthful?  I  think 
such  cases  have  been  known,  and  might  again  be  seen  in 
a  strong  personality  welded  to  truth  and  rectitude.  But 
the  other  is  usually  considered  the  best  business  way,  easier 
and  more  successful,  that  is  to  say  where  success  is  measured 
by  money  with  no  discount  for  quality. 

A  newspaper  man,  like  most  men  of  affairs,  is  in  busi- 
ness for  one  paramount  purpose  in  addition  to  the  several 
minor  purposes.  Either  the  main  purpose  or  purposes  or 
one  of  the  minor  purposes  is  money  in  one  form  or  another. 
Money  makes  the  newspaper  go,  and  even  the  most  parsi- 
monious and  mercenary  of  proprietors  will  pour  it  out 

400 


MODERN  JOURNALISM  401 

like  water  to  increase  the  strength  or  influence  of  his  jour- 
nal. It  is  only  by  using  even  parsimonious  money  lavishly 
that  great  newspapers  are  made. 

There  are  several  aspirations  other  than  that  for  money 
that  may  dominate  the  avaricious  owner  of  a  great  news- 
paper, who  hugs  to  his  heart  its  one  great  desire,  ever  seek- 
ing to  hide  itself,  however  unsuccessfully,  beneath  the  dis- 
play of  assumed  patriotism  and  the  current  news. 

Political  ambition  is  among  the  more  common  of  the 
not  too  successfully  hidden  of  these  occult  inspirations. 
Horace  Greeley  greatly  desired  to  be  president  of  the  United 
States;  nor  would  some  others  decline  the  position  to-day 
were  it  offered.  It  is  reported  of  the  elder  Bennett  that 
he  would  scandalize  his  dead  grandmother  for  sensational 
copy. 

Hate  exercises  a  predominating  influence  oftener  than 
love.  If  the  owner  of  the  paper  has  a  malignant  as  well 
as  mercenary  disposition,  he  will  do  much  to  injure  his 
neighbor,  or  try  to  do  so,  for  when  temper  appears  influ- 
ence disappears. 

Social  climbing  sometimes  breaks  out  in  virulent  form 
such  as  appears  in  political  climbing,  though  for  so  fatuous 
and  empty  a  reward  there  are  fewer  aspirants.  The 
political  climber  who  reaches  the  desired  goal  is  envied  by 
many;  the  society  climber  who  prostitutes  a  journal  pre- 
tending to  respectability  for  a  seat  in  snobdom  is  usually 
an  upstart  who  brings  upon  himself  the  contempt  of  friends 
and  enemies  alike,  and  whose  social  elevation  renders  his 
vulgarity  only  the  more  conspicuous.  As  to  the  daily  and 
weekly  blackmailers  and  panderers  to  high  crime,  they  also 
have  their  day. 

There  are  journalists  so-called  which  are  below  the 
plane  of  possible  criticism. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  so  many  of  our  leading  news- 
papers are  the  property  of  wealthy  men  whose  primary 
purpose  is  not  simply  to  print  the  news  and  discuss  fairly 
the  important  questions  of  the  day,  but  rather  to  effect 


402  RETROSPECTION 

some  ulterior  object,  to  secure  some  business  advantage, 
to  punish  an  enemy  or  gratify  an  ambition.  Such  a  person 
is  seldom  influenced,  in  assuming  the  cares  of  journalism, 
by  considerations  of  public  benefit,  as  in  the  purification 
of  politics  or  in  elevating  the  standards  of  morality  and 
intellectual  culture.  Endless  professions  are  made  in  these 
directions  but  they  are  for  the  most  part  insincere.  Hence 
it  is  that  so  little  of  what  we  read  in  the  papers  rings  true, 
particularly  in  the  editorials.  One  never  can  tell  what  a 
newspaper  man  believes  from  what  he  says. 

Do  not  we  often  find  the  writer  of  editorials  posing  as 
the  embodiment  of  all  knowledge,  of  all  patriotism,  giving 
forth  to  the  world  the  unadulterated  concentration  of  wis- 
dom, posing  as  one  of  the  best  citizens,  as  a  model  of  high- 
mindedness,  of  learning,  purity  and  integrity?  And  we 
ask  ourselves,  are  editors  so,  or  are  they  common  humanity, 
like  the  rest  of  us,  very  common  humanity,  perhaps,  selfish 
and  self-seeking  always,  brutal  and  vulgar  sometimes,  in- 
different to  the  public  well-being,  untruthful  and  insincere 
wherever  their  own  dislikes,  or  prejudices,  or  the  fancied 
interests  of  their  paper  are  concerned? 

We  may  expect  the  usual  column  of  praise  of  the  public 
acts  and  private  virtues  of  the  official  from  whom  a  favor 
is  preferred,  a  franchise  or  a  subsidy  secured.  Praise  of  the 
beauty,  dress,  and  accomplishments  of  the  society  leaders 
and  their  proteges  through  whom  there  may  be  hope  to 
rise  in  the  social  scale.  Praise  of  whatever  money  is  paid 
to  praise,  and  of  whatever  will  tend  to  increase  circulation. 
If  the  owner  has  an  important  case  coming  before  the  su- 
preme court  the  paper  is  pretty  sure  to  oppose  the  recall 
of  the  judiciary. 

The  reader  is  apt  to  forget  that  the  newspaper  is  only  a 
mouthpiece,  not  a  bunch  of  brains;  yet  if  its  evil  influence 
is  sufficiently  sterilized  by  the  intelligence  of  the  com- 
munity no  great  damage  is  done.  At  the  same  time,  being 
without  principle,  and  guided  by  no  policy  save  that  which 
considers  the  personal  interests  or  inclinations  of  the  owner, 


MODERN  JOURNALISM  403 

the  reader  is  loath  to  accept  the  somewhat  dogmatic  and 
insistent  instructions  of  the  writer. 

Yet  in  some  respects  an  advance  has  been  made  in  jour- 
nalism during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century.  The  columns 
of  editorial  abuse,  one  of  another,  with  which  readers  were 
wont  to  be  regaled,  have  for  the  most  part  disappeared, 
short  strictures  having  taken  their  place. 

The  wealthy  and  well-established  of  these  newspapers 
have  most  of  them  passed  the  incipient  stage  in  journalistic 
development  of  blackmail  and  blackguardism,  emerging 
upon  an  ostensible  plane  of  respectability;  but  these,  like 
the  others  less  advanced  fall  before  the  allurements  of  the 
tempter,  accept  the  bribe  and  drop  into  line.  Then,  after 
playing  the  harlot  until  the  pay  stops,  they  wipe  their  lips 
saying,  ' '  I  have  done  no  evil, ' '  and  are  ready  to  hire  them- 
selves out  again. 

Let  the  discriminating  reader  pause  a  moment  as  he 
opens  out  his  60-page  bundle  of  print  and  pictures  and 
analyze  the  subconscious  conceptions  running  through  his 
brain,  and  what  is  the  result  ?  What  may  he  expect  to  en- 
counter when  he  begins  to  read ;  what  must  he  be  prepared 
to  accept,  to  oppose,  to  repudiate,  to  regard  with  indiffer- 
ence ? 

The  writers  themselves,  editors  and  reporters,  are  not 
responsible  for  the  principles  of  the  paper,  or  for  the  lack 
of  them ;  they  write  as  they  are  told  to  write,  and  as  they 
are  paid  for  writing.  Therefore  for  the  color  of  what  is 
coming  we  must  not  look  into  their  minds,  but  rather  con- 
sider who  and  what  may  be  the  impelling  force  behind 
them. 

The  newspaper  press  is  bound  by  necessity  to  reflect 
the  people  and  the  times.  We  look  into  it  only  to  see  mir- 
rored ourselves,  the  worst  part  of  some  of  us  the  better  part 
of  others,  the  most  deleterious  influence  of  all  acting  on  the 
owner,  who  deals  in  human  passions  and  events,  warping 
facts  to  suit  his  fancy. 

Much  of  what  is  printed  we  can  set  aside  as  hollow 


404  RETROSPECTION 

sham,  as  matters  in  which  we  are  not  interested,  and 
through  which  it  is  useless  to  wade. 

Vituperation,  yes  pages  of  it,  displaying  envy  and  hate, 
plentifully  besprinkled  with  lies  and  blackguardism,  with 
personal  abuse  or  dirty  linen  to  wash.  There  is  a  class  of 
morgue-loving  society  ghouls  who  read  such  stuff  with 
avidity,  but  from  which  one  of  clean  mind  turns  in  dis- 
gust. 

And  so  on.  Even  the  current  news,  domestic  and  for- 
eign, we  can  get  only  as  it  comes  colored  with  the  pro- 
clivities and  prejudices  of  another. 

Such  as  this  and  much  more  runs  unconsciously  through 
the  mind  as  one  unfolds  the  paper  and  glances  at  the  more 
conspicuous  headlines.  And  so  it  comes  about  that  such 
journalism  fails  in  its  intention  and  influence,  fails  to  call 
forth  the  expected  admiration  and  sympathy  in  favor  of 
the  owner,  but  tends  rather  to  excite  aversion  and  contempt. 

The  answer  is  that  the  modern  newspaper,  as  sent  forth 
by  a  wealthy  owner,  is  not  intended  for  a  class  with  pure 
tastes  and  refined  intellects,  and  that  these  if  they  would 
get  the  news  must  take  the  ditch-water. 

"Give  the  public  what  it  wants,"  Pulitzer  used  to  say. 
It  seems  that  it  wanted  oceans  of  rot,  in  a  form  invented 
by  Mr.  Pulitzer  called  sensational  journalism,  and  which 
returned  to  him  thirty  millions  of  dollars,  net. 

Few  governors  have  ever  dared  to  defy  the  public  press 
as  Governor  Johnson  has  done,  but  Governor  Johnson  dares 
to  defy  anything.  He  knows  full  well  that  when  the  foul- 
ness of  a  newspaper  is  exposed,  that  when  its  lies,  its  hypoc- 
risies, its  sales  of  the  last  shred  of  decency  it  may  have 
once  possessed  its  power  to  harm  is  ended.  It  can  only 
emit  a  foulness  which  engenders  disgust.  "I  want  the 
people  of  this  state  to  know  and  judge  for  themselves," 
said  Governor  Johnson,  referring  to  certain  strictures 
made  by  him  regarding  the  tendency  of  journalism  to 
vilify,  blackmail,  or  praise  according  as  they  are  paid. 


MODERN  JOURNALISM  405 

"Wherever  we  see  a  rotten  nest  we  are  breaking  it  up, 
wherever  we  find  a  crook  in  the  public  service  we  are  driv- 
ing him  out.  This  sort  of  thing  dosn't  please  the  moral 
engines  of  the  press  to  which  I've  just  referred,  but  it 
pleases  me,  and  it's  the  kind  of  government  California  is 
going  to  have  for  three  and  a  half  years  more. ' ' 

There  is  plenty  of  ability,  there  are  energy  intelligence 
and  grit,  but  there  is  a  lack  of  manhood  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  press,  a  lack  of  honesty  and  sincerity. 

A  newspaper  man  wants  a  subsidy.  He  begins  incon- 
tinently to  praise  the  official  through  whom  it  may  be  ob- 
tained, and  to  work  for  his  reelection.  Is  that  bribery  or 
only  blarney?  Whatever  it  is  the  people  pay  for  it. 

A  newspaper  wants  more  circulation.  It  first  works 
up  good  government,  and  helps  to  put  criminals  in  prison; 
then  to  the  disgust  of  its  readers  it  whips  round  and 
twaddles  of  forgiveness  and  the  release  of  the  same  evil- 
doers. In  thus  attempting  to  secure  first  the  good  citizen 
patronage,  then  the  patronage  of  the  evil-minded,  it  brings 
upon  itself  the  contempt  of  all. 

Money  can  do  great  things,  but  there  are  some  things 
that  money  cannot  do;  it  cannot  establish  and  keep  suc- 
cessfully alive  along  modern  lines  a  large  daily  news- 
paper upon  the  principle  of  truthfulness  and  integrity 
in  all  things,  no  more  than  a  woman  can  live  and  move 
in  the  upper  circles  of  society  and  always  speak  the  truth. 
Why?  Because  people  do  not  want  that  sort  of  paper, 
and  will  not  be  influenced  by  that  sort  of  woman. 

The  modern  successful  newspaper  of  the  ponderous 
class  is  a  concoction  of  current  events  which  are  of  in- 
terest to  all,  with  pages  of  specialties  of  interest  only  to  a 
class,  high  or  low,  usually  low,  with  sections  emanating 
from  brains  warped  by  nature  but  with  added  disorgan- 
ization for  the  purpose,  a  sports  section;  a  comic  section, 
which  eradicates  in  the  youthful  imagination  whatever 
taste  for  art  it  might  otherwise  possess;  a  section  of  oafs 
14 


406  RETROSPECTION 

and  monstrosities,  pictures  by  an  artist  of  the  insane  asy- 
lum and  text  of  the  dime  novel  order  by  a  scandal  sec- 
tion; a  political  section  made  up  of  praise  for  one  side 
and  denunciatory  lies  for  the  other;  an  expert  of  disor- 
dered mind  and  dedicated  to  idiots;  columns  of  murders, 
divorces,  criminal  trials,  showing  the  seamy  side  of  human 
nature  for  those  of  seamy  tastes,  with  plenty  of  suicides, 
robberies,  and  rapes;  pages  of  scandal,  vituperation,  and 
personal  abuse,  for  those  who  love  scandal  and  personal 
abuse;  weak  and  washy  editorials  carefully  constructed 
for  weak  and  washy  intellects;  faces  of  reporters  and 
writers  staring  the  reader  out  of  stomach  from  January 
to  December,  the  delectable  ensemble  lighted  with  a  halo 
of  lies  and  hypocrisy  not  the  least  among  its  several  at- 
tractions. And  why  those  faces;  is  it  necessary  to.  inflict 
them  on  the  reader  three  hundred  times  a  year? 

This  for  the  great  dailies;  worse  if  possible,  if  any- 
thing can  be  worse,  are  the  current  weeklies,  organs  of 
high  society  and  high  crime,  pimps  of  the  press,  who  sell 
their  wares  to  whomsoever  will  buy  and  then  like  Ruef  sell 
the  purchaser  and  beg  him  to  buy  again.  They  display 
neither  reason  nor  principle,  but  only  bald  mendacity, 
where  their  interests  are  concerned. 

In  all  personal  or  partizan  issues  the  best  journalist  is 
he  who  is  most  skilled  in  misrepresentation. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  high-crime  prosecution  in  San 
Francisco  the  proprietor  of  one  of  these  journals,  which 
had  hitherto  been  quite  respectable,  came  to  me  asking 
advice  as  to  which  side  he  should  take,  that  of  honesty 
and  the  welfare  of  the  community  or  that  of  criminality 
and  demoralization.  I  soon  saw  that  he  had  already  made 
up  his  mind  to  the  latter  course.  "I  am  not  in  business 
for  my  health,"  he  said.  "There  is  sure  and  easy  money 
on  the  side  of  money;  there  are  hard  knocks  and  no  pay 
if  I  go  against  them." 

"How  about  the  integrity  of  your  journal?"  I  asked. 
"Is  that  worth  nothing?" 


MODERN  JOURNALISM  407 

"It  is  worth  what  it  will  fetch  in  money,"  he  said.  "I 
have  a  family." 

"Then  as  a  member  of  this  community  you  are  ready 
to  fly  the  skull  and  cross-bones,  and  cry  with  the  rest  of 
them,  'To  hell  with  morality;  give  us  money.'  " 

"I  am  afraid  that  is  about  the  size  of  it,"  with  a 
metallic  smile.  "The  others  are  doing  it." 

"Is  it  not  rather  a  small  sum,  this  for  which  you  are 
selling  yourself  and  betraying  your  city?" 

"Oh,  come  off!  It's  all  I  can  get,  and  more  than  any 
one  else  will  give." 

So  he  departed  to  collect  his  thirty  pieces  of  silver, 
and  sink  himself  and  his  paper  beneath  the  contempt  of 
good  men.  He  went  his  way.  It  was  only  an  effigy  of  a 
man  after  all.  There  was  here  an  opportunity  to  make 
a  good  fight  for  a  grand  cause.  He  threw  it  away,  and 
with  it  threw  himself  away.  It  is  said  that  the  subsidy 
he  received  from  special  interests  was  a  thousand  dollars 
a  month.  Times  changed;  good  government  came  again 
into  power;  high  crime  and  reactionary  interests  having 
no  further  use  for  such  an  organ  dropped  it,  and  a  once 
valuable  property  became  as  tattered  rags. 

When  he  tried  to  crawl  back  to  his  former  position, 
his  old  patrons  repudiated  him. 

A  thousand  dollars  a  month ;  some  received  more,  some 
less;  six  thousand  dollars  a  month  for  the  integrity  of  the 
press  of  San  Francisco.  Divided  among  the  railroads, 
corporations,  bankers,  and  affiliated  interests,  the  cost  to 
each  was  not  severe.  It  was  all  the  goods  were  worth, 
however,  and  more,  though  the  valuation  would  be  low 
for  respectable  journalism.  Considerable  additions  to  the 
bribe  direct,  however,  should  be  made  for  patronage  in  the 
way  of  subscriptions  and  advertisements. 

A  prostituted  press.  A  newspaper  run  professedly  in 
the  interests  of  the  public,  but  actually  for  the  gratifica- 
tion of  the  passions  and  prepudices  of  the  owner. 

A  prostituted  press.     What  quality  of  enlightenment 


408  RETROSPECTION 

is  that  which  proceeds  from  one  who  writes  under  orders, 
and  what  quality  of  man  is  it  who  for  pay  deals  out  as 
truth  what  he  knows  to  be  false? 

One  may  think  it  a  little  strange  how  so  many  of  these 
weekly  Jezebels  of  journalism  can  live  and  pay  the  printer. 
"Well,  of  one  way  I  have  many  times  had  experience  ever 
since  blackmailing  became  a  fine  art. 

"I  say,  mister,  let  me  put  your  picture  on  the  front 
page,  and  a  page  of  reading  matter  inside — write  it  your- 
self ;  only  a  hundred  dollars." 

"Goto  the  devil." 

Such  a  proposition  means  pay  the  money  or  take  your 
medicine,  the  latter  a  string  of  abuse  until  the  liberty  and 
purity  of  the  press  gets  tired.  Much  as  I  like  cleanliness, 
I  prefer  filth  to  the  deeper  degradation  of  their  praise. 

To  say  that  the  greater  part  of  the  newspapers  printed 
in  the  United  States  are  a  disgrace  to  the  country,  a  dis- 
grace to  the  intelligence  of  the  people,  is  to  say  what 
every  one  knows  to  be  true,  and  what  few  will  deny. 
There  is  in  them  an  absence  of  that  sincerity  and  truth, 
of  those  principles  of  integrity  which,  while  instructing 
the  mind  and  promoting  culture,  elevate  the  political  and 
moral  well-being  of  the  community.  There  is  an  absence 
of  right  thinking,  of  right  feeling,  or  I  should  say,  rather, 
an  absence  of  any  thinking  or  feeling  at  all  except  such 
as  will  gratify  personal  spleen  or  bring  profit  to  the  owner. 

Well,  what  are  we  going  to  do  about  it?  We  love 
scandal;  we  delight  in  the  misfortunes  of  others;  we  read 
with  avidity  all  about  the  rapes,  murders,  and  incendiaries 
of  the  day;  the  infelicities  of  the  rich  are  especially  ex- 
citing, their  elevation  and  downfall,  their  infidelities  and 
divorces;  all  who  are  involved  in  disgraceful  bankruptcies, 
in  annoying  lawsuits,  all  who  are  sent  to  prison,  or  are 
in  any  wise  punished  for  their  sins ;  we  comfort  ourselves 
that  we  are  not  of  these,  and  that  we  have  no  sins,  or  at 
least  none  of  much  importance  that  are  thus  far  found 
out.  Happily  we  can  enjoy  all  this  in  our  daily  paper, 


MODERN  JOURNALISM  409 

for  our  daily  papers  teach  us  so  to  do,  and  we  are  willing 
to  pay  for  it;  and  our  good  teacher  the  paper  proprietor 
is  willing  to  take  the  money  and  call  it  quits. 

What  are  we  to  do  about  it,  to  say  about  it?  Nothing. 
My  lord  proprietor  will  tell  you  that  he  knows  his  own 
business;  that  people  want  claptrap  and  that  if  he  will 
not  give  it  them,  others  will;  that  he  doesn't  care  a  damn 
for  the  well-being  or  ill-being  of  the  people,  or  for  their 
moral  or  spiritual  nature,  or  for  their  growth  in  grace 
or  disgrace;  he  will  print  what  his  patrons  want  and  are 
satisfied  to  pay  for,  and  that  is  the  sum  and  substance  of 
his  moral  or  immoral  philosophy. 

And  who  shall  blame  him?  Do  we  blame  the  skunk 
for  its  smell  or  the  snake  for  its  sting?  God  made  every- 
thing for  some  purpose,  the  newspaperman  with  the  rest, 
only  it  is  a  matter  of  some  regret  that  we  must  have  our 
morning  portion  served  by  such  a  steward. 

Then  of  what  do  we  complain?  We  are  not  complain- 
ing, fair  sir,  only  stating  a  few  facts,  only  thinking  of  the 
effect  of  all  this  on  ourselves,  and  our  children,  only  think- 
ing that  perhaps  there  is  something  better  in  heaven  and 
earth  than  is  dreamt  of  in  the  philosophy  of  such  base 
contemplation,  of  such  filthy  studies  as  these  our  mentors 
and  opinion-makers  serve  us, — for  one  cent  per  diem,  two- 
thirds  of  it  for  the  lord-proprietor  and  one-third  for  the 
poor  little  devil  that  sells  the  papers. 

Much  is  said  of  the  influence  of  the  newspaper  press. 
I  have  noticed  that  where  the  journalist  is  in  earnest  and 
honest  his  words  carry  weight;  where  he  is  plainly  lying, 
or  writing  for  pay  contrary  to  his  convictions,  among  in- 
telligent readers  he  excites  only  disgust.  When  Taft 
turned  renegade  and  carried  with  him  the  subsidized  press, 
which  comprised  most  of  the  leading  newspapers,  what 
they  all  of  them  together  said  made  but  little  impression 
except  upon  the  lower  or  baser  element  of  society. 

Some  of  the  best  paying  newspapers  have  little  or  no 
influence  which  affects  public  opinion,  or  sways  the  minds 


410  RETROSPECTION 

of  their  readers.  They  may  print  the  news  and  be  good 
advertising  mediums,  while  the  editorials  and  outbursts 
of  spleen  mingled  with  senseless  twaddle  fall  to  the  ground 
unheeded  and  harmless. 

We  need  not  ask  why  so  few  of  kind  heart  and  good 
character  can  conduct  a  successful  newspaper  in  the 
United  States.  The  people  want  the  news,  they  want 
truthful  news,  at  least  there  must  be  some  truth  in  it,  but 
they  want  it  highly  seasoned,  and  with  plenty  of  spicy 
scandal. 

The  great  newspaper  proprietor,  whether  risen  from 
the  lower  level  or  the  inheritor  of  wealth,  is  well  hated, 
and  in  return  he  hates.  This  is  his  one  great  pride  and 
purpose,  when  not  preceded  by  cupidity;  in  owning  a 
newspaper  he  can  strike  from  behind  his  presses  without 
fear  of  a  return  blow.  Though  an  editor  gets  killed  occa- 
sionally, it  only  increases  the  value  of  the  property  for 
the  heirs;  it  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  see  the  good  name 
of  an  enemy  smutted  with  printers'  ink. 

It  is  sweet  to  injure  those  we  hate.  But  there  the 
wealthy  newspaperman  makes  a  mistake,  for  howsoever 
much  he  may  injure  his  enemy  he  injures  himself  more. 
When  he  rolls  through  his  presses  his  columns  of  vin- 
dictive spleen  he  stands  there — what?  That  most  con- 
temptible of  objects,  a  man  filled  with  venom,  cowardly, 
as  he  strikes  only  when  at  an  advantage,  a  malevolent  soul 
naked  before  the  eyes  of  all  men.  The  worst  weapon  for 
himself  a  rich  man  of  vindictive  disposition  can  have, 
and  one  with  which  he  should  never  trust  himself  is  a 
newspaper. 

The  weekly  press  of  San  Francisco  has  been  aptly 
likened  to  the  painted  woman,  who  has  sold  her  honor, 
thrown  away  all  influence  for  good,  and  prostituted  her- 
self for  gain.  This  may  have  been  the  case  in  some  in- 
stances; as  a  rule  this  class  of  journals  never  had  any 
honor  and  were  never  anything  else  but  prostitutes.  They 
began  like  many  of  the  dailies,  with  blackmailing,  intend- 


MODERN  JOURNALISM  411 

ing  to  leave  it  off  and  become  respectable  when  they  could 
afford  it.  It  appears  that  they  have  never  been  able  to 
afford  it. 

One  might  imagine  from  the  scrapings  of  filth  from 
their  person  when  the  supreme  court  turned  loose  upon 
the  town  the  high  grafters  of  the  dark  era  of  crime,  that 
reform  had  set  in  with  the  gentlemen  of  the  predatory 
press,  because  of  stoppage  of  pay,  when  in  reality  it  was 
only  a  clearing  of  the  decks  for  a  new  action. 

Speaking  in  Congress  of  the  bad  effect  of  vulgar  jour- 
nalism on  the  taste  and  morals  of  society  Senator  Works 
said  : 

' '  Not  only  does  such  publication  incite  others  to  crime, 
and  sometimes  to  suicide,  but  it  is  generally  hurtful  to 
the  morals  and  sensibilities  of  the  people  to  read  column 
after  column  of  sensational  stories  of  crime  and  criminals. 
It  is  impossible  to  pick  up  a  newspaper  to-day  without 
seeing  story  after  story  of  death  by  violence,  horrible 
accidents  and  other  such  matters.  I  think  it  is  high  time 
the  matter  should  be  given  serious  consideration." 

In  a  community  where  unrestricted  license  is  given, 
the  newspaper  is  a  pretty  fair  index  of  the  mind  and 
morals  of  its  readers.  With  due  allowance  for  the  idiosyn- 
crasies of  the  owner  or  editor  the  patron  may  see  in  his 
daily  paper  a  tolerably  accurate  reflection  of  himself. 

In  taking  up  a  paper  of  this  kind  the  feeling  of  the 
reader  is  one  of  indifference  or  disgust,  knowing  that  not 
a  word  can  be  relied  on  where  the  interests  or  prejudices 
of  the  proprietor  intervene.  Unconsciously  as  he  opens 
it  he  considers  the  character  of  the  sheet  and  its  owner, 
his  political,  commercial,  and  social  relations  and  ambi- 
tions ;  if  he  is  a  great  liar  or  only  a  small  one,  and  regulates 
his  expectations  and  valuations  accordingly. 

So  long  as  the  public  press  is  ruled  by  individual  pas- 
sions or  private  interests  we  must  not  be  surprised  some- 
times to  find  our  mentors  mercenary,  vindictive,  and 
brutal.  We  must  not  be  surprised  to  see  any  good  impulse 


412  RETROSPECTION 

distorted,  any  good  man  besmeared  with  calumny  by 
lying  tongues. 

Which  reminds  me  of  a  literary  free  lance  who  once 
came  to  me  for  employment.  It  appeared  that  he  had 
acted  as  editor  of  a  religious  journal  for  small  pay,  as  in 
his  writings  he  might  follow  the  tenets  of  his  faith;  but 
previously  he  had  taught  in  a  private  school  with  off- 
color  orthodoxy.  At  the  school  the  amount  of  salary  had 
been  agreed  upon,  after  which  the  new  teacher  was  notified 
that  an  extempore  morning  prayer  would  be  expected  of 
him.  "I  can't  do  that  for  the  money,"  he  replied.  "I 
will  read  you  a  prayer  if  you  like,  but  if  I  am  to  furnish 
originality  with  faith,  I  must  be  paid  for  it." 

In  almost  every  large  city  the  leading  newspapers  are 
devoted  to  special  interests,  though  covered  as  far  as 
possible  by  matters  of  general  consequence.  The  owner 
of  the  paper  engages  writers  to  do  his  bidding,  and  they 
write  as  they  are  told. 

A  journal  that  will  sell  itself,  sell  its  city,  sell  the 
owner's  integrity,  if  he  has  any,  and  which  for  years 
denounces  decency,  opposes  the  punishment  of  rich  crim- 
inals, sustains  official  vice  in  every  form,  and  then  as  soon 
as  the  pay  stops  turns  and  talks  about  the  wickedness  of 
bribery,  the  loathsomeness  of  vice,  and  the  like,  has  sunken 
too  low  for  ordinary  scorn;  yet  such  is  the  not  infre- 
quent course. 

As  compared  with  eastern  journalism  the  west  dis- 
plays more  boldness  and  originality  as  well  as  more  coarse- 
ness and  slang.  Though  still  a  power,  it  has  lost  much 
of  its  influence,  apparently  expecting  the  public  to  believe 
more  than  half  it  says. 

It  is  a  singular  fancy  some  rich  men  have  that  by 
controlling  certain  of  the  newspapers  they  can  control 
public  opinion.  They  do  not  realize  how  little  influence 
the  paid  manipulators  of  the  press  have,  how  transparent 
are  their  untruths,  and  how  little  attention  is  given  to 


MODERN  JOURNALISM  413 

anything  they  can  say  on  any  question  in  which  they  or 
their  masters  have  an  interest. 

Any  public  journal,  in  order  to  carry  much  weight 
with  it,  must  have  in  appearance  at  least  an  air  of  fair- 
ness or  disinterestedness.  If  behind  the  veil  the  cloven 
foot  of  premeditated  purpose  is  seen,  words  are  as  idle 
wind. 

We  go  to  hear  the  speaker,  or  preacher,  who  tells  us 
the  things  we  like  to  hear.  We  read  the  newspaper  that 
takes  our  own  view  of  the  questions  of  the  day.  We 
regard  with  suspicion  any  change  of  purpose  or  policy 
on  the  part  of  our  editor  and  begin  to  look  about  for  the 
cause.  And  we  generally  find  it.  The  journalist  does  not 
deceive  to  the  extent  that  he  imagines. 

Let  us  hope  ere  long  to  see  the  progressive  principle, 
which  is  good  government,  equal  rights,  purity  in  politics, 
the  best  in  life  for  all  the  people,  become  not  only  the 
foundation  of  a  new  political  party,  the  meaningless  terms 
democrat  and  republican,  both  rotten  with  iniquity,  for- 
ever discarded,  but  the  basis  also  of  all  respectable  jour- 
nalism, from  which  all  efforts  at  misrepresentation,  all 
lies,  all  cant,  hypocrisy,  backbiting,  blackguarding,  and 
the  usual  roll  of  revenges  shall  be  eliminated. 


CHAPTER   XXII 

VAGARIES      OF      SOCIETY 

AN  eminent  London  physician  attributes  the  neurotic 
temperament  of  high  class  society  to  inherited 
wealth  and  the  absence  of  laudable  effort.  Wealthy  par- 
entage and  luxurious  environment  tend  to  weakness  of 
mind  sometimes  bordering  on  imbecility.  Particularly  is 
this  the  case  with  regard  to  succession  in  the  families  of 
European  sovereigns  and  the  aristocracy,  whose  mental 
condition  on  the  average  is  below  the  normal,  a  lament- 
able number  every  year  lapsing  into  lunacy.  Among  these 
he  has  noticed  that  the  first  born,  owing  to  the  unstable 
condition  of  the  young  parents,  is  more  timid  and  hys- 
terical if  possible  than  the  others,  and  he  suggests  by  way 
of  some  mitigation  of  the  evil  that  the  English  law  of 
inheritance  should  be  changed  so  that  instead  of  the  first- 
born the  second  or  third  son  should  be  invested  with  the 
succession. 

This  position  is  ably  sustained  by  Professor  J.  Fried- 
jung,  of  Vienna,  as  well  as  by  the  learned  Karl  Pearson, 
the  former  having  placed  under  examination  one  hundred 
offspring  of  aristocratic  families  and  finding  only  thirteen 
of  them  normal,  while  eighteen  were  severely  neuropathic 
and  sixty-nine  displayed  nervous  unstability. 

That  this  evil  has  spread  to  America  and  extends  over 
a  wide  range  there  is  no  question.  The  children  of 
wealthy  parents,  neglected,  pampered,  or  nagged  accord- 
ing to  the  humor  of  whoever  has  charge  of  them,  are  poor 
material  for  American  citizenship  such  as  the  term  once 
implied. 

414 


VAGARIES    OF    SOCIETY  415 

Offspring  of  the  idle  rich,  when  not  neglected  for 
frivolities  and  left  to  servants  are  petted  and  pampered' 
to  their  disadvantage,  so  that  in  either  case  they  grow  up 
physically  and  intellectually  inferior.  One  in  twenty  of 
our  able  and  prominent  men  may  have  been  born  rich, 
overcoming  an  inherent  tendency  to  decadence. 

High  society  parents  are  exposed  to  many  indulgences ; 
eating  to  gluttony  and  drinking  to  drunkenness,  dissipat- 
ing in  a  greater  or  less  degree  body  and  mind,  but  oftener 
dwindling  away  in  inanity  to  an  empty  shell. 

Alcoholic  parentage  is  as  bad  for  the  poor  as  for  the 
rich;  but  though  there  may  be  more  drunkenness  among 
the  poor  there  is  less  drinking  than  among  the  rich.  So 
with  regard  to  crime;  many  criminals  are  found  among 
the  poor,  more  criminals  exist  among  the  rich,  whether 
found  or  not. 

Howsoever  much  or  little  we  may  accept  of  the  the- 
ories of  the  learned  men  of  science,  the  fact  is  palpable 
that  race  deterioration  attends  luxury  and  laziness,  and 
that  luxury  and  laziness  attend  high  society,  by  which 
term  is  not  meant  the  best  society,  but  rather  the  class 
faineant  of  the  Merovingian  kings,  the  frothy  class  that 
floats  on  the  top  in  wealth  and  idleness,  and  whose  dis- 
reputable doings  are  chronicled  with  due  eclat  in  the 
journals  of  the  day. 

It  is  poor  policy  blaming  high  society  for  its  low 
birth  rate.  The  social  economist  will  tell  you  that  the 
fewer  there  are  of  that  class  the  better.  They  are  of  no 
benefit  to  the  commonwealth,  no  blessing  to  humanity,  and 
no  ornament  to  the  race. 

In  plant  life  for  the  betterment  of  the  fruits  we  select 
kind  and  quality;  in  animal  life  we  choose  the  best  for 
breeding.  It  is  only  the  human  race  that  is  left  in  its 
propagation  to  run  its  own  course. 

The  body  social  in  the  United  States,  that  is  to  say 
those  aspiring  to  the  upper  realms  or  who  fancy  them- 
selves already  there,  has  greatly  changed  in  its  component 


416  RETROSPECTION 

parts  during  the  last  two  decades.  Consult  the  society 
columns  of  the  newspapers,  and  we  find  nine-tenths  of 
the  names  foreign.  We  were  once  an  English  colony,  then 
an  Anglo-American  people;  now  we  are  Latin,  Slav,  or 
Teuton;  if  we  want  Anglo-Saxon  society  we  must  go  to 
England  for  it. 

The  idle  rich,  in  common  with  our  later  importations 
of  the  lower  classes  from  Europe,  are  breeding  for  Ameri- 
can citizenship  a  race  of  pygmies,  diminutive  in  body  and 
mind,  features  pinched  and  form  puerile,  their  presence 
especially  noticeable  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and 
New  York. 

Classes  of  society,  class  distinctions  exist  in  imagina- 
tion rather  than  in  reality.  Strictly  speaking  there  is  no 
society.  In  an  economic  sense,  or  collectively,  there  are 
the  people,  but  as  a  fashion,  society  long  ago  fell  by  reason 
of  dead  weight,  decay,  and  incoherence,  and  was  broken 
into  fragments,  leaving  only  cliques,  sets,  coteries.  Each 
of  these  cliques  or  coteries  calls  itself  society,  some  of  them 
really  believe  that  they  are  something  of  the  sort  and  the 
only  pure  article. 

Louis  XIV  with  France  at  his  feet  was  society.  A 
vain  pompous  profligate,  with  courtesans  as  councilors 
and  never  a  wholesome  thought  in  all  his  gilded  halls, 
this  man  or  monster  was  society,  as  was  his  confrere 
Charles  of  England.  The  king  can  do  no  evil ;  society  can 
do  no  evil.  Napoleon  of  Corsica,  born  poor,  becoming 
master  of  Europe  became  society,  the  society  of  the  aris- 
tocrats having  suffered  decapitation.  What  the  Corsican 
lacked  in  pedigree  he  made  up  in  genius,  which  gave  him 
power,  which  gave  him  kings  for  courtiers,  princesses  for 
ladies  in  waiting,  and  all  femininity  for  mistresses. 

This  was  high  society,  its  rottenness  being  limited  only 
by  the  power  and  human  capabilities  to  rot;  and  as  there 
never  before  or  since  has  been  such  power  lodged  in  the 
hands  of  one  man,  and  vicariously  in  the  hands  of  many 
men  and  women,  we  may  reasonably  regard  the  Napoleonic 


VAGARIES   OF    SOCIETY  417 

era  as  the  summit  of  high  society,  of  which  our  era  is  the 
logical  sequence. 

Harking  back  therefore  to  the  days  of  Josephine,  who 
played  with  fate  like  other  women,  and  was  scarcely  the 
peerless  matron  chaste  readers  of  history  delight  in,  we 
may  easily  follow  down  the  trail  to  the  present  time, 
England  copying  the  fashions  of  France,  the  colonies  copy- 
ing England  while  looking  at  France,  and  we  of  the 
present  gold-engulfed  era  copying  from  them  all. 

What  then  is  the  nature  and  circumscription  of  this 
century-old  influence  that  so  subtly  entrammels  our 
would-be  best  ones  to-day?  This  answered  and  the  poli- 
ties of  society  stand  revealed. 

First  of  all  the  observer  takes  notice  that  form  takes 
precedence  over  all  other  forces;  sham  stands  for  sub- 
stance until  substance  no  longer  needs  sham  for  its  sup- 
port. The  king  can  do  no  evil;  evil  in  the  king's  house 
becomes  good;  we  worship  the  good  whether  it  be  evil 
or  not.  Social  forms  cover  all  the  sins  of  the  decalogue. 

.  Sham  and  conventionalities,  and  the  leaders  of  high 
society  must  of  necessity  be  liberally  endowed  with  hypoc- 
risy. They  are  often  estimable  persons,  but  they  cannot 
escape  the  fetters  of  fashion. 

For  a  feeder  to  folly  appears  the  newspaper  press, 
where  women  young  and  old  see  so  much  of  themselves, 
their  portraits  and  their  prattle,  their  coming  and  going, 
their  clubs,  charities,  and  reforms,  thus  obtaining  a  false 
estimate  of  themselves  tending  in  no  wise  to  improve  their 
mind  or  manners. 

Social  ostracism  has  been  suggested  as  a  punishment 
for  high  crime,  but  it  will  not  work.  The  predatory  rich 
are  a  society  or  cabal  unto  themselves.  Already  lost  to 
honor,  without  patriotism,  void  of  any  moral  sense,  they 
want  associates  only  like  themselves. 

At  the  same  time  ostracism  as  applied  by  the  parvenuea 
of  Fifth  avenue  has  more  effect  than  anything  respect- 
ability can  do  to  punish  the  rich. 


418  RETROSPECTION 

Society  smiles  at  crime  and  shrieks  over  a  broken  con- 
ventionality. It  is  a  powerful  force  indeed,  that  which 
impels  a  woman  to  make  herself  hideous,  to  expose  charms 
which  are  no  charms  in  order  to  be  in  the  fashion. 

There  is  no  slavery  like  the  slavery  of  society.  There 
is  no  sentiment  so  strong,  no  passion  so  deep,  no  force  so 
impelling  as  the  forms  and  fashions  by  which  society  leads 
captive  its  votaries.  There  is  nothing  so  unbecoming  a 
woman  will  not  wear  to  be  in  the  fashion.  There  is  no 
point  of  personal  beauty  she  will  not  sacrifice  rather  than 
sacrifice  the  mode,  there  is  nothing  so  sinful  she  would 
not  dare  rather  than  live  outside  the  pale  of  convention. 
She  would  rather  not  be  than  not  be  in  vogue. 

This  inexorable  environment,  this  obsession  of  servi- 
tude we  carry  with  us  through  life  and  hug  to  vanquished 
hearts  as  we  pass  into  death.  There  is  no  escape  from  it. 
We  will  have  it  so;  there  is  no  wish  to  escape.  If,  over- 
taken by  a  spasm  of  independence  we  throw  off  one  tyr- 
anny, immediately  we  seek  for  ourselves  another  tyranny 
and  find  it. 

It  is  strongest  in  the  supernatural,  but  it  is  always 
present  in  the  natural.  If  not  around  us,  then  in  us,  and 
the  slavery  to  ourselves  is  most  imperative  of  all.  We  are 
not  good  to  ourselves ;  too  often  we  rule  for  the  worst  and 
not  for  the  best;  we  make  idiots  of  ourselves  when  per- 
adventure  we  may  not  have  been  born  so. 

Even  in  the  ghosts  of  things  long  dead,  in  things  long 
known  to  be  dead  or  never  existing,  we  bow  the  head  in 
servitude,  as  in  religion  when  we  have  no  religion,  though 
once  enslaved  to  its  forms  then  always  enslaved,  howsoever 
stoutly  we  may  assert  that  we  feel  no  longer  the  bondage. 
We  are  slaves  to  form,  slaves  to  fashion,  slaves  to  the 
shadow  of  an  idea.  The  gregarious  predilection  and  the 
instinct  of  imitation  is  as  fully  developed  in  men  and 
women  as  in  sheep. 

Society  in  the  United  States  is  a  queer  conglomeration. 
In  the  absence  of  royalty,  nobility,  or  any  accredited  aris- 


VAGARIES    OF    SOCIETY  419 

tocracy  there  is  no  standard  of  qualification.  Therefore  of 
necessity  it  is  as  mixed  as  the  population,  and  as  shallow 
as  the  average  intellect.  Among  the  hundreds  of  coteries, 
each  claiming  to  be  highest  and  best  there  are  few  that 
fraternize.  Those  who  prefer  civic  purity  and  cleanliness 
of  morals  do  not  care  for  the  companionship  of  high  crim- 
inality, who  in  their  turn  have  little  regard  for  men  or 
women  not  made  of  money.  Among  Celts,  Teutons,  and 
Anglo-Saxons  the  Hebrew  does  not  appear  as  a  social  fac- 
tor, while  the  Latin  race  reckons  itself  somewhat  as  a  peo- 
ple apart. 

To  enter  high  society  successfully  the  woman  must  put 
on  the  wisdom  and  wickedness  of  the  serpent,  and  as  few 
clothes  as  possible;  the  men — well,  there  are  no  real  men 
in  high  society. 

Defects  are  ignored  if  such  can  be  in  high  society. 
Veneered  vice  or  absent  virtue  are  not  to  be  mentioned. 
Defects  of  mind  are  obscured  with  silly  speech  called 
smart,  or  clever. 

Here  then  is  the  skeleton  in  all  its  nakedness  set. up 
during  the  centuries  by  our  great  exemplars  of  France 
and  England,  upon  which  Americans  for  their  own  delec- 
tation are  to  lay  on  the  flesh. 

For  the  highest  of  high  society  now,  since  decapitation 
in  France,  we  have  only  the  rest  of  Europe  with  their  royal 
progeny,  of  which  we  can  be  at  best  but  a  sorry  imitation. 
We  lack  alas!  half  of  Europe's  ancient  superstitions,  the 
divinity  of  social  absurdities,  of  royal  inheritances,  of  a 
titled  and  untitled  aristocracy,  of  a  great  horde  born  every 
year  into  enforced  idleness,  enforced  under  penalty  of 
social  alienation.  And  so  the  whole  ever-increasing  brood 
goes  on  breeding  worthlessness. 

Inherited  wealth  is  bad  enough,  but  inherited  title  and 
position  is  worse.  Intangible  and  imaginary  merit,  worthy 
of  some  special  consideration  is  bestowed  upon  some  in- 
tangible and  imaginary  object,  call  it  prince  or  pig,  for 
the  pig  can  as  easily  inherit  as  the  prince. 


420  RETROSPECTION 

There  was  no  room  for  modesty,  no  need  of  pretense, 
in  the  good  old  days  of  Louis  and  Charles,  when  wanton- 
ness was  open  and  rottenness  gave  forth  its  true  odor. 
Nor  is  there  need  of  pretense  or  profession  in  the  twen- 
tieth century  coronation  of  a  king,  for  all  is  plain  buf- 
foonery, pure  and  simple. 

The  few  American  duchesses  and  things  left  over  after 
the  royal  muckraking  for  actresses,  divorcees,  and  other 
scandal-smitten  dames  set  themselves  out  to  see  who  can 
spend  the  most  American  money  in  European  society. 
From  half  a  million  to  a  million  a  year  is  attained  by  some, 
who  all  the  while  think  themselves  commanding  the  ad- 
miration of  the  world,  whereas  they  are  only  exciting  the 
contempt  of  all  sensible  people. 

There  is  not  a  king  in  Christendom,  or  heathendom, 
there  is  not  a  potentate  in  history  sacred  or  profane,  who 
has  not  had  wives  and  mistresses  ad  libitum.  And  the 
prince  takes  after  the  king,  and  high  society  follows  the  ex- 
ample of  the  prince,  and  there  is  the  warrant  for  every 
abomination. 

But  this  warrant  is  not  served  on  the  modest  American 
maiden  when  the  duke  comes  for  her.  Her  mother  never 
tells  her  that  she  will  have  to  share  her  duke  with  bar- 
maids and  actresses,  for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  Eu- 
rope. 

As  a  rule,  when  an  American  heiress  marries  a  Euro- 
pean nobleman  trouble  comes.  Three  out  of  four  are  in 
due  time  divorced,  the  others  hide  their  disgust  and  smile 
back  at  their  envious  friends  at  home.  Much  of  this  in- 
ternational infelicity  is  the  fault  of  parents  who  leave 
their  daughters  in  ignorance  as  to  standards  of  morality 
here  and  there,  and  the  difference  with  which  the  record- 
ing angel  regards  wickedness  in  men  and  wickedness  in 
women. 

Interracial  marriages  are  a  failure,  breaking  up  the 
sacred  traditions  on  both  sides,  and  leaving  nothing  in 
their  place.  Neither  can  respect  the  institutions  nor  ac- 


VAGARIES    OF    SOCIETY  421 

cept  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  other;  the  uniting  is  in 
no  sense  a  union. 

The  Teutonic  mentality  is  turbid  and  coarse,  and  into 
whatsoever  transformations  it  may  pass  these  character- 
istics in  a  greater  or  less  degree  will  remain.  The  Latin 
mentality  is  imaginative  and  swayed  by  sentiment;  it  is 
dark,  impulsive,  and  unreasonable,  and  mixes  ill  with  any 
other.  The  Anglo-Saxon  is  aggressive  and  domineering, 
ever  in  pursuit  of  a  definite  object,  which  just  now  is 
money;  the  English-speaking  race  are  all  possessed  with 
a  mania  for  wealth. 

It  is  because  of  these  oppugnant  mentalities  that  so 
many  infelicities  arise  from  international  marriages;  this, 
and  the  different  purposes  in  view.  The  American  girl 
marries  an  Italian  title,  prompted  thereto  by  her  vanity 
and  love  of  notoriety;  the  man  marries  for  money  pure 
and  simple.  The  woman  abandons  dull  duty  for  a  refined 
immorality;  the  man  gives  up  nothing. 

The  ethnic  elements  of  society  in  the  United  States  are 
undergoing  changes,  the  Teuton  and  the  Celt  rapidly  sup- 
planting the  Anglo-American,  who  seems  to  care  less  and 
less  for  the  frivolities  and  furbelows  of  fashionable  crowds. 

Heredity  and  environment  both  fail  when  frivolity  be- 
comes the  leading  influence  in  life.  The  mind  becomes 
dull  and  feeble  from  inaction,  though  heredity  for  a  time 
may  help  to  brace  up  the  intellect  as  environment  affects 
the  manners. 

From  the  aristocratic  government  of  Washington  and 
his  time,  from  the  plain-living  puritanism  and  stern  virtue 
of  New  England  a  hundred  years  ago  we  have  become 
demagogical,  not  alone  politically  but  socially  and  finan- 
cially. We  keep  always  on  hand  a  good  stock  of  patriot- 
ism for  sale  at  the  lowest  price.  We  have  a  brilliant 
criminal  class  living  in  palaces  and  putting  the  slums  to 
shame.  We  have  high  society  of  the  highest,  smart  sets 
of  the  smartest,  all  striving  for  supremacy  in  silliness. 
We  have  the  finest  churches  filled  with  the  most  devout 


422  RETROSPECTION 

worshipers  of  wealth,  whose  pulpits  are  occupied  by 
preachers  faithful  to  the  customs  and  creeds  of  their  sup- 
porters. The  moneyed  element  have  plenty  of  leisure  in 
which  to  concoct  evil  schemes  while  the  masses  are  at 
work.  Hence  vice  flourishes  among  the  idlers,  and  high 
society  becomes  the  hot-bed  of  high  crime.  In  evidence, 
there  are  the  indicted  wrong-doers,  the  bribers  and  court- 
mongers,  the  divorcee  in  fresh  war  paint,  the  advanced 
young  woman  with  her  bull  pup,  and  the  brainless  young 
man  with  his  lascivious  leer. 

Prominent  in  this  coterie  are  presidents  of  public 
service  corporations  who  bribe  officials  to  steal  from  the 
people  for  the  benefit  of  their  company.  These,  the  high- 
est criminals  in  the  land,  are  among  the  leaders  in  high 
society. 

High  society  women  to  some  extent  are  losing  their 
hold  on  men,  the  elder  ones  being  retained  only  by  the 
table  and  the  sideboard,  and  the  younger  ones  by  the 
buffet  and  the  ballroom.  Women  whose  undisciplined 
minds  dwell  chiefly  on  the  froth  and  vanities  of  life  have 
little  in  common  with  men  occupied  in  money-making, 
and  the  chivalrous  attention  so  common  in  times  past  is 
not  so  often  seen. 

Essential  to  society  are  wealth  and  display,  without 
these  high  society  would  be  low  indeed.  Emblematical 
of  moneyless  high  society  is  the  maid  or  matron  of  low 
degree  with  high  swinging  arms  and  graceless  wrigglings, 
rejoicing  in  the  possession  even  of  vulgarity  if  thereby 
attention  may  be  attracted.  Like  self-made  men,  self- 
made  women,  whether  of  cotton  or  whalebone,  are  good 
form  in  society,  high  or  low. 

The  young  lady  of  high  society, — she  is  rich,  she  is 
pretty,  but  she  knows  nothing  and  can  do  nothing;  for 
which  outfitting  to  meet  the  issues  of  life  she  is  indebted 
to  her  high  society  mother. 

To  inherit  wealth  is  too  often  to  inherit  idleness,  the 


VAGARIES    OF    SOCIETY  423 

greatest  curse  of  all.  To  be  denied  the  privilege  of  useful 
occupation  under  penalty  of  social  ostracism  is  punish- 
ment severer  than  imprisonment  behind  the  bars. 

As  a  rule  a  large  fortune  is  necessary  to  shine  in  so- 
ciety, that  is  to  say  in  certain  kinds  of  society.  The  best 
society  does  not  need  money  to  brighten  it.  Where  money 
is  the  dominating  influence,  then  money  is  the  society  and 
not  the  men  and  women.  It  is  not  a  very  attractive 
woman  that  requires  pearls  and  diamonds  to  make  her 
attractive.  Perhaps  she  may  find  comfort  in  the  reflec- 
tion, if  she  ever  reflects,  that  it  is  the  stones  that  shine  and 
not  she  herself. 

The  ethical  ideals  of  the  best  society  include  the  man- 
ner of  making  money  as  well  as  the  manner  of  spending 
it.  It  must  be  made  honestly  and  spent  honestly.  It  is 
not  spending  money  honestly  to  entertain  fashionable 
criminals  at  dinner,  or  help  elect  a  bad  man  to  office,  or 
support  a  clergyman  too  cowardly  to  denounce  wickedness 
in  high  places.  Women  delight  in  change,  and  when 
money  becomes  plethoric  in  the  household  of  the  hitherto 
merely  wealthy,  an  economic  readjustment  necessarily  fol- 
lows. The  very  wealthy  woman  is  seldom  without  social 
aspirations.  Of  what  use  is  money  if  it  will  not  help  her 
to  shine  in  society?  It  is  in  this  distinction  that  lies  her 
power,  and  power  is  as  dear  to  her  heart  as  to  that  of  her 
husband.  If  she  cannot  make  herself  conspicuous  in  a 
sensible  way,  then  she  must  do  so  along  the  lines  of  folly. 
To  see  them  act,  these  whilom  washer-women  and  serving 
men  it  may  be  they  were,  one  would  imagine  that  they  or 
their  forebears  had  in  their  veins  the  imperial  purple  of 
the  Roman  emperors. 

There  is  as  wide  a  distinction  between  a  woman  of 
wealth  and  fashion  with  charming  manners  and  a  lady, 
as  there  is  between  a  man  of  wealth  and  learning  or 
genius  and  a  gentleman. 

David  Graham  Phillips  calls  the  idle  rich  the  parasite 


424  RETROSPECTION 

class ;  the  idle  poor  are  paupers.  The  man  and  the  woman 
are  drifting  every  day  wider  apart,  the  man  to  his  work, 
the  woman  to  her  wiles.  The  fact  that  the  highest  aim  of 
a  society  woman  is  a  life  of  pleasure  is  of  less  sociological 
significance  than  what  her  idea  of  pleasure  may  be.  Some 
find  the  greatest  pleasure  in  household  labor,  some  in 
charitable  work,  some  in  intellectual  pursuits;  it  is  not  a 
life  of  good  works  but  of  pleasure  per  se  that  is  here 
referred  to. 

When  the  newly  rich,  seeing  distinction  from  associa- 
tion with  conspicuous  social  lights,  seek  admission  to  the 
charmed  circle,  its  attractions  are  increased  by  the  diffi- 
culties thrown  in  the  way.  The  merely  wealthy  sink  to 
insignificance,  and  nothing  in  the  world  is  worth  while 
except  to  be  one  with  the  gay  light-headed  and  light-hearted. 

To  speak  of  a  class  as  the  best  society  because  of  its 
wealth  or  because  of  its  assumption  of  superiority  is  to 
speak  foolishly.  Evidently  the  best  society  is  that  out  of 
which  the  best  proceeds.  We  cannot  logically  place  in 
that  category  such  names  as  John  D.  Rockefeller  and 
Leland  Stanford,  though  rich,  pious,  and  founders  of  col- 
leges, for  though  many  are  apparently  benefited  thereby 
the  benefits  are  as  Dead  Sea  fruit.  Such  men  are  only  car- 
buncles of  society,  excrescences  of  the  times. 

Society  may  be  graded  up  or  down,  good  better  best, 
or  bad  worse  worst.  Beginning  of  course  with  ourselves, 
we  and  ours  being  always  best,  our  children,  our  country, 
our  religion.  They  may  be  the  worst  children,  country,  and 
religion  in  the  world,  yet  we  must  pretend  that  they  are 
the  best,  else,  as  the  poet  says,  we  forfeit  fair  renown  and 
turn  to  dust  unsung,  which  were  a  pity.  And  if  we  would 
not  be  concentrated  all  in  self,  and  meet  our  doom  as  such, 
we  must  continue  to  regard  ourselves  and  ours  as  the  best ; 
our  government  our  law-makers  and  law-breakers,  the  best; 
our  high-crime  professors  and  bribers,  our  men  of  special 
interests,  of  trusts  monopolies  and  grafts,  our  grabbers  of 
land  and  lumber,  of  coal  iron  and  oil ;  our  captors  of  rail- 


VAGARIES.  OF    SOCIETY  425 

ways  built  by  others  with  the  people's  money,  all,  all,  the 
best. 

Can  that  be  good  society  whose  component  parts  are 
bad  ?  Can  it  be  good  society  where  there  is  no  lady  and  no 
gentleman?  What  is  a  gentleman  and  what  a  lady? 
Not  good  looks,  nor  fashionable  clothes,  nor  fine  houses.  To 
be  a  lady  she  must  have  a  kind  heart,  a  charitable  disposi- 
tion, and  a  tongue  that  will  not  backbite  or  tell  lies.  Some 
prefer  coarseness  to  refinement,  brutality  to  gentleness,  im- 
morality to  decency;  people  are  made  differently.  Leave 
the  pig  to  enjoy  his  sty,  for  he  is  not  amenable  to  conven- 
tionalities or  crystallized  social  sentiment,  though  he  is  not 
indifferent  to  social  ostracism;  to  most  animals  this  were 
a  severe  punishment. 

Why  should  we  say  the  idle  rich?  Like  snakes  in  Ire- 
land there  are  no  idle  rich.  Satan  provides. 

An  aspiring  individual  builds  himself  a  five  million 
dollar  house  on  Fifth  avenue.  Why  this  display?  Is  it 
for  honor?  He  is  not  honored  thereby.  Is  it  for  admira- 
tion? He  is  not  admired  for  it.  It  is  the  house  if  any- 
thing that  is  admired.  Is  it  for  esteem?  There  is  nothing 
estimable  about  the  man. 

As  I  have  said  before,  it  is  hardly  fair  to  distinguish 
by  the  term  criminal  class  the  petty  pickpockets  of  the 
slums,  the  cheap  assassins,  the  bold  burglars,  the  chivalrous 
highwaymen,  those  alone  for  whom  prisons  are  made,  when 
there  are  at  hand  streets  full  of  men  in  careful  dress  and 
with  pompous  mien,  any  one  of  whom  will  accomplish  as 
much  evil  in  a  single  day  as  all  the  denizens  of  the  low- 
lying  districts  will  encompass  in  a  year.  No,  it  is  among 
the  rich  and  prosperous  that  we  find  the  true  criminal 
class,  those  who  cheat  the  government,  rob  the  people  by 
millions,  and  dynamite  incriminating  witnesses ;  who  grasp 
and  secure  for  themselves  alone  the  natural  wealth  which 
is  the  common  property  of  all;  bribers,  defaulters,  merger 
men,  public  officials,  and  private  promoters;  men  who  fat- 
ten on  fraudulent  trusts,  and  with  consummate  cunning 


426  RETROSPECTION 

and  sleight  of  hand  win  the  wealth  of  others  into  their  own 
pockets,  and  who  handle  other  people's  money  for  what 
will  stick  to  their  fingers. 

It  is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  literature,  society,  though 
Disraeli  did  not  know  it  when  he  made  his  book.  It  is 
more  of  a  curiosity  now  than  it  was  sixty  years  ago,  more 
curious  in  America  at  least,  if  not  in  England,  as  nothing 
can  be  more  curious  than  the  roarings  and  rampancy  of 
the  fashionable  world  attending  the  collapse  or  crowning 
of  a  man  inheriting  monarchy. 

Confining  ourselves  to  the  United  States,  where  there 
is  folly  enough  for  all  the  world,  we  find  some  six  thousand 
towns  and  cities,  each  with  its  society  of  the  several  grades, 
as  "society,"  "the  best  society,"  "good  society,"  and  "not 
in  society, ' '  each  grade  having  its  leader,  or  one  who  con- 
siders herself  such, — for  it  is  usually  a  woman,  or  may  be 
several  women,  each  one  of  whom  is  sure  she  is  It,  and  will 
so  maintain,  bringing  forth  as  proof  diamonds  and  dresses, 
motors,  horse  equipages,  and  a  hot-house  hospitality.  Some 
affect  brains  and  prattle  Omar  Khayyam  and  Browning; 
some  display  fingers,  and  twang  the  harp;  some  the  light 
fantastic  toe,  and  "Oh!  I  just  love  it."  And  whether  in 
reality,  were  there  any  reality  about  it,  whether  good,  better, 
or  best,  each  is  sure  she  is  It,  the  only  perfect  It,  all  the 
others,  though  well  enough  in  their  way,  being  inferior, 
which  it  were  graceful  in  them  to  acknowledge. 

This,  in  their  own  town  or  city,  on  their  own  hill  of 
eminence.  Let  one  cross  the  line  of  her  queendom  into  the 
domain  of  another,  she  is  a  distinguished  visitor;  in  a  larger 
city  she  is  a  stranger,  in  New  York  or  Newport  she  is  a  no- 
body; should  she  have  the  temerity,  even  though  she 
queened  it  over  no  mean  city  at  home,  to  cross  the  water  to 
London  or  Paris,  she  is  a  lost  soul  in  purgatory.  For  what 
are  the  highest  in  New  York  society  before  the  American 
peeresses  in  London,  or  the  American  peeresses  before  the 
English  peeresses,  or  the  English  peeresses  before  the 
queen,  or  the  queen  before  sisters  of  celestial  fame  f 


VAGARIES   OF    SOCIETY  427 

When  in  society  we  are  not  as  others  see  us,  else  were 
we  small  indeed ;  in  or  out  of  society  we  are  to  ourselves  as 
we  see  ourselves,  else  we  would  not  be  at  all. 

Two  or  more  women  with  wealth  enough  to  entertain 
and  wit  enough  to  attract  can  declare  themselves  high 
society  and  exclude  all  who  might  not  advantage  their 
scheme.  Exclusion  leads  to  envy  and  envy  to  adulation 
and  endless  snobbery. 

This  smart  set,  which  might  more  properly  be  called 
the  silly  set,  is  not  composed  of  the  best  people,  though 
there  may  be  some  estimable  persons  among  them.  They 
lead  a  sort  of  bumblebee  existence,  and  fancy  all  around 
them  are  anxious  to  be  one  of  them,  as  indeed  many  are, 
but  not  the  better  class  of  the  community.  Women  of  mind 
as  well  as  manners,  men  who  take  life  more  seriously,  and 
have  useful  work  to  do  are  not  attracted  by  the  frivolities 
of  fashion.  Young  men  who  set  out  to  accomplish  some- 
thing in  the  world  cannot  dance  all  night  and  work  all  day. 
Hence  the  so-called  best  society  is  usually  the  worst.  The 
social  leaders  in  the  more  pretentious  class  are  seldom 
known  beyond  their  own  precincts,  and  have  no  recognition 
in  fashionable  life  elsewhere. 

Each  community  has  its  own  standard  of  superiority. 
With  the  most  of  them  it  is  wealth,  that  being  the  most 
common  and  most  available.  Some  fall  back  on  ancestry, 
and  here  and  there  we  see  a  coterie  of  learned  persons,  of 
wits,  or  artists,  who  affect  to  despise  wealth,  but  do  not. 

We  may  regard  the  high  society  criminals  with  some 
degree  of  leniency  when  we  consider  how  the  seeds  of 
wrong-doing  were  brought  and  are  kept  alive  in  their  re- 
ligion. The  teaching  of  Israel  was  to  rob,  capture,  and  kill 
all  of  another  faith,  the  effect  of  which  injunction  has  not 
died  out  to  this  day,  "God  bless  our  gracious  queen  and 
give  her  the  victory  over  all  her  enemies,"  even  if  those 
enemies  are  fighting  for  their  homes  in  India  or  Africa,  or 
are  refusing  good  English  opium  in  China. 

Of  high  society  Henry  Ward  Beecher  thus  testifies: 


428  RETROSPECTION 

"When  a  whole  people,  united  by  a  common  disregard  of 
justice,  conspire  to  defraud,  need  we  ask  the  cause  of 
growing  dishonesty  among  the  young?  Men  of  notorious 
immorality,  whose  dishonesty  is  flagrant,  whose  private 
habits  would  disgrace  the  ditch,  are  powerful  and  popu- 
lar. I  have  seen  a  man  stained  with  every  sin,  except 
those  which  required  courage;  into  whose  head  I  do  not 
think  a  pure  thought  has  entered  for  forty  years,  received 
into  respectable  families  to  their  everlasting  shame." 

"New  York's  four  hundred  are  as  Sodom,"  said 
George  Chalmers,  high  churchman  of  Philadelphia.  "To 
rule  the  smart  set  means  to  manage  gambling  parties  and 
assist  at  divorce  proceedings." 

High  society  breeds  low  citizenship,  the  young  man 
devotes  his  life  to  pleasure;  his  highest  thoughts  are  of 
sport;  silly  talk  with  silly  girls  enrolls  him  in  the  smart 
set.  He  has  no  more  idea  of  political  responsibilities  than 
the  mule  has  of  music. 

Rather  a  despicable  character  in  society  is  the  climber. 
The  desire  to  be  with  those  who  wish  to  be  thought  better 
than  they  are  is  not  a  noble  one.  The  affectation  of  su- 
periority attracts  the  shallow-minded,  who  long  in  like 
manner  to  attract  sham  with  superior  sham.  If  in  his 
pitiful  attempts  the  social  climber  succeeds,  it  is  only  to 
make  his  eminence  of  vulgarity  permanent.  People  are  not 
apt  to  forget  the  ground  from  which  the  climber  started. 

It  is  sad  to  see  the  briber,  once  so  honored,  now  dis- 
graced ;  it  is  sad  to  see  the  defaulter,  once  so  trusted,  now 
put  to  open  shame;  but  it  is  more  sad  to  see  briber  and 
defaulter  received  in  society  like  honest  men. 

In  the  olden  time,  in  all  intelligent  and  well-regulated 
communities,  every  one  worked,  and  work  was  respectable; 
idleness  was  disgraceful.  All  this  has  changed.  The  idle 
and  profligate  plant  themselves  on  conspicuous  corners 
and  call  themselves  society,  while  all  useful  and  really 
respectable  men  and  women  who  work  are  said  by  them 
to  be  not  in  society.  The  absence  alike  of  poverty  and 


VAGARIES   OF    SOCIETY  429 

wealth  during  the  first  half  of  the  century,  all  uniting 
work  with  respectability,  brought  all  together  on  a  plane 
of  equality,  while  later,  as  wealth  and  idleness  increased, 
only  the  refuse  and  the  worthless  could  properly  call  them- 
selves in  society. 

Denver  has  a  refined  and  intelligent  people ;  it  is  more 
like  Boston  in  this  respect  than  any  western  city.  Yet 
among  those  in  Denver  who  label  themselves  high  society 
are  some  of  the  vilest  corruptionists  the  country  can  pro- 
duce, men  who  sell  the  souls  of  children  for  money,  and 
openly  vilify  in  vulgar  and  blasphemous  terms  the  judge 
on  his  bench  for  attempting  their  rescue. 

Of  great  men  and  great  women  there  must  necessarily 
be  comparatively  few  in  the  world,  for  greatness  implies 
distinction.  If  all  were  rich  and  great  alike  there  would 
be  no  superiority.  Money  in  the  hands  of  one  person  is 
of  no  value  if  it  will  not  buy  the  services  of  another. 

Greatness  in  the  sense  of  distinction  is  an  overwhelm- 
ing craving  of  the  human  heart.  The  desire  for  power 
is  the  mainspring  of  all  human  activities,  the  primary 
principle  of  all  human  progress.  Nor  is  it  humanity  alone 
that  covets  distinction.  Animals  and  plants  fight  for  the 
supremacy,  the  fittest  surviving. 

Places  as  well  as  peoples  set  up  various  measurements. 
To  do  nothing  and  do  it  well,  is  the  aim  of  the  English- 
man; to  do  evil  undetected  pleases  the  Frenchman,  while 
the  American  above  all  things  likes  best  to  make  money, 
honestly  if  practicable.  In  Turkey  the  ideal  Sultan  is  he 
who  secures  repose,  dignified  repose. 

In  Europe  where  caste  is  still  strongly  marked,  not 
so  much  by  money  and  title  as  by  blood  and  occupation, 
the  really  best  society,  the  class  that  gives  the  most  and 
does  the  best  is  that  part  of  the  nobility  and  gentry  who 
follow  some  useful  occupation,  as  statesmanship,  finance, 
or  even  high  commerce  and  manufacturing,  as  against  an 
idle  and  dissipated  aristocracy. 


430  RETROSPECTION 

The  city  languishes  unless  replenished  from  the  country, 
and  idle  society  falls  into  decay  unless  vivified  by  those 
who  work. 

There  is  a  class  better  than  high  society,  which  is  the 
Best  Society.  The  best  society  is  distinguished  from  high 
society  in  that  its  personnel  is  composed  for  the  most 
part  of  men  who  work  and  are  honest.  Some  of  them 
are  even  disposed  to  be  truthful. 

As  to  the  more  sensible  and  refined  realms  of  social 
intercourse  where  mind  meets  mind  to  the  improvement 
of  all,  there  is  little  of  it  left.  Men  meet  to  eat  and  drink 
and  smoke,  women  to  dance  and  laugh  and  scandalize. 
This  is  so-called  high  society,  the  more  nonsensical  and 
extravagant  it  is  the  higher  it  ranks.  It  is  exceeded 
in  imbecility  by  only  one  class,  and  that  is  of  those 
who  regard  it,  envy  it,  and  would  like  to  be  in  it  but 
cannot. 

There  are  men  in  England  who  make  good  society; 
there  are  few  of  that  stamp  in  America,  the  older  ones 
talking  stocks  and  the  younger  ones  sport. 

The  commercial  value  of  civic  integrity  is  a  quality 
always  to  be  reckoned  with,  the  advocacy  of  immunity 
for  high  crime  being  measured  by  the  morality  or  cupidity 
of  the  moneyed  men. 

What  constitutes  good  society,  the  best  society  ?  I  will 
tell  you.  In  the  early  gold-digging  days  San  Francisco's 
good  society  was  better  than  the  best,  better  than  any 
since  seen  there,  because  of  its  patriotism,  single-minded- 
ness,  and  charity.  The  men  were  honest  and  the  women 
pure  of  heart.  Vice  flaunted  its  colors  in  the  streets, 
and  crime  plied  its  trade  in  the  dark,  but  the  saviors  of 
the  city  went  their  way  untainted. 

There  was  want  and  suffering  abroad,  and  these  people, 
at  first  strangers,  soon  became  friends,  drawn  together  by 
bonds  of  sympathy  and  respect.  The  women  formed 
charitable  associations  and  the  men  built  hospitals  and 
asylums.  Their  names,  when  the  honor  roll  of  California 


VAGARIES   OF    SOCIETY  431 

is  called,  should  come  first, — Mrs.  Ira  P.  Rankin,  Mrs. 
Alfred  De  Witt,  Mrs.  C.  V.  Gillespie,  Mrs.  William  Lef- 
fingwell,  Mrs.  D.  L.  Ross,  Mrs.  0.  C.  Wheeler,  Mrs.  F.  W. 
Macondray,  Mrs.  Henry  Haight,  and  among  the  men, 
John  W.  Geary,  Hall  McAllister,  H.  W.  Halleck,  William 
T.  Coleman,  Charles  Gilman,  Stephen  Franklin. 

These  and  such  as  these  are  always  good  society,  be  the 
time  and  place  whatever  it  may. 

Marshall  Field,  a  noble  specimen  of  American  man- 
hood, from  a  poor  youth — seeking  work  in  the  wet  streets 
of  murky  Chicago,  rises  by  his  own  inherent  force  of 
character  into  a  loftier  environment,  makes  a  hundred 
millions,  and  dies  of  a  bruised  heart  from  the  untimely 
death  of  a  worthy  son,  who  leaves  a  boy  sole  heir  to  all. 
What  chance  has  he  to  accomplish  anything  worth  liv- 
ing for,  this  guarded  babe,  who  is  switched  off  to  Europe 
by  a  dozen  relatives  with  a  score  of  servants,  the  better 
to  spend  there  the  grandfather's  earnings? 

In  the  best  society  are  still  left  some  shreds  of  patri- 
otism. Among  the  young  men  are  some  who  will  go  out 
and  work  for  pure  politics,  not  wanting  office.  Among 
the  elders  are  some  that  are  rich  and  influential  who  dis- 
courage immorality  and  will  not  indulge  in  bribery. 

The  best  society  in  America  is  composed  chiefly  of 
Americans  with  American  ideals.  Aliens  may  now  and 
then  come  in  from  the  effete  civilizations  of  Europe  and 
become  members  of  the  best  society,  but  it  cannot  be  ex- 
pected that  they  should  at  once  fall  in  love  with  a  country 
not  their  own,  or  entertain  any  great  degree  of  loyalty 
and  respect  for  institutions  in  the  making  of  which  they 
had  taken  no  part. 

The  young  men  of  the  best  society  are  ashamed  of 
idleness  and  inefficiency;  they  attend  dinner  parties  and 
dances  but  do  not  make  a  practice  of  spending  the  night 
in  revelry  and  the  day  in  bed.  The  young  women  of  this 
class  likewise  aspire  to  a  life  of  usefulness,  remembering 
that  their  grandmothers  worked,  and  that  they  them- 


432  RETROSPECTION 

selves  are  profiting  by  it,  while  the  high  society  girls 
who  know  nothing  and  can  do  nothing,  never  had  a 
grandmother. 

It  is  becoming  somewhat  common  among  the  young 
men  even  of  high  society  to  affect  a  life  of  usefulness,  to 
copy  enough  from  the  code  of  the  best  society  as  to  adopt 
some  of  its  virtues,  even  to  the  learning  of  the  principles 
and  practice  of  business  methods  and  of  setting  their 
hands  thereto.  Some  go  so  far  as  to  apply  to  habits  of 
dissipation  the  term  damphoolishness.  Herein  may  we 
build  up  some  hope  for  the  future.  And  while  we  are 
about  it  we  may  as  well  hope  a  little  for  the  gay  fossils 
and  withered  dowagers  as  well  as  for  the  prurient  youths 
of  lascivious  ballrooms. 

A  clique  may  draw  around  itself  a  circle  within  which 
better  people  than  any  it  contains  are  excluded  for  no 
apparent  reason  than  that  they  want  to  enter,  and  they 
may  want  to  enter  for  no  other  reason  than  that  they  are 
excluded. 

During  the  latter  part  of  the  last  century  society  as- 
sumed its  most  complex  form.  Following  the  civil  war 
came  reconstruction,  expansion,  and  a  development  which 
multiplied  wealth.  We  were  admittedly  a  great  nation, 
the  wealthiest  and  strongest  in  the  world,  all  of  which 
were  of  little  avail  could  not  a  proper  display  of  it  be 
made.  Men  may  build  homes,  women  may  carry  a  paltry 
half  million  upon  their  backs,  if  not  left  too  bare,  while 
government  may  send  a  bunch  of  war  ships  round  the 
world,  all  for  vain  show,  one  as  another. 

Virtue  becoming  too  tame,  vice  is  adopted  for  a  change. 
"Punishments  established  for  the  common  people  do  not 
apply  to  us,"  says  high  society;  "our  immoralities,  our 
dishonesties  are  swallowed  up  in  our  superiority." 

This,  then,  is  the  whole  matter.  In  every  city,  in 
every  large  town  of  America  and  Europe  society  separates 
itself  into  cliques  or  classes,  each  class  having  or  pre- 
tending to  have  some  distinctive  merit  or  demerit  not 


VAGARIES   OF    SOCIETY  433 

possessed  by  any  one  of  the  others.  Conspicuous  among 
them  is  the  coterie  composed  of  the  higher  or  louder  pre»- 
tentions,  sometimes  called  the  smart  set,  which  has  wealth 
and  loves  pleasure.  It  is  the  class  to  which  gravitate  per- 
sons of  leisure  ambitious  of  cheap  distinction.  Men  may 
or  may  not  possess  intelligence  or  culture,  but  they  are 
expected  to  be  to  some  extent  in  vogue.  Morals  are  a 
secondary  consideration;  even  great  criminals  may  pass, 
if  otherwise  strong  enough  and  of  good  form.  This  is 
high  society;  to  be  in  or  out  of  it,  they  will  tell  you,  is 
to  be  in  or  not  of  society.  Next  is  a  class  of  substantial 
people  of  less  pretentious,  who  regard  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart,  who  hold  to  good  morals  and  integrity,  despis- 
ing the  frivolities  they  are  supposed  to  be  coveting. 

To  join  the  circle  of  the  elect  one  must  adopt  their 
vices  and  submit  to  their  vulgarities.  To  continue  therein 
too  often  one  is  led  into  excesses,  resulting  in  debauchery 
and  crime. 

The  daughter  of  the  clergyman  has  charge  of  a  child; 
if  the  child  is  old  enough  to  have  lessons  she  is  a  governess 
and  a  lady,  if  not,  she  is  a  nurse  and  no  lady.  She  may 
stitch  or  paint  for  pleasure  but  not  for  profit;  she  may 
play  cards  for  money,  but  not  for  money  with  which  to 
procure  necessities.  A  lady  who  works  for  a  living,  rather 
than  beg  or  steal,  is  ostracized.  Break  all  the  command- 
ments, so  that  you  are  not  found  out,  but  do  not  break  con- 
ventionalities. 

Having  exhausted  for  something  sensational  the  values 
of  common-sense  and  decency,  the  realms  beyond  are  en- 
tered and  all  sorts  of  bizarre  performances  are  invented, 
some  of  which  may  be  spoken  of  aloud,  as  a  wedding  in  a 
balloon,  a  dinner  on  horseback,  a  poverty  social.  And  all 
the  while  the  brainless  flutterers  in  fine  raiment  seem  to 
imagine  themselves  the  attraction  when  it  is  only  the  fine 
raiment  or  the  absence  of  it. 

Nowhere  can  we  find  a  more  complex  society  than  in 
the  United  States,  and  nowhere  is  to  be  found  better  so- 


434  RETROSPECTION 

ciety  than  our  best.  It  is  natural,  intellectual,  healthy, 
and  free  from  guile.  It  is  improving  and  progressive, 
one  cannot  be  of  it,  or  long  in  it,  and  remain  inert. 

High  society  sets  up  for  itself  an  oligarchy;  low  so- 
ciety drifts  into  democracy;  the  true  republic  of  culture 
and  refinement  lies  between  extremes. 

Any  woman,  young  or  old,  of  modern  proclivities,  and 
who  carries  her  reputation  with  ordinary  circumspection, 
who  mingles  properly  with  kindred  spirits,  may  set  herself 
up  as  high  society,  still  striving  for  something  higher  as 
others  strive  to  get  so  high. 

All  men  are  created  free  and  equal — except  snobs,  and 
they  are  equalled  only  by  other  snobs. 

All  are  born  free  and  equal,  but  they  are  not  so  five 
minutes  afterward.  All  are  born  free  and  equal;  all  die 
free  and  equal;  but  in  life  all  is  unequal,  and  therein  is 
the  zest  of  it.  A  world  of  all  equalities  were  a  dead 
world,  and  therein  were  the  doom  of  socialism.  A  world 
without  controversy  were  stagnation,  more  unbearable 
than  human  butcheries. 

Fashion  makes  freaks  of  us  all,  and  if  we  do  not  follow 
the  fashion  we  are  greater  freaks  than  ever. 

The  vagaries  of  fashion  embody  all  the  idiocies  of 
humanity.  There  is  no  crime  one  will  not  commit,  no 
hideousness  one  will  not  undergo,  no  suffering  one  will 
not  endure  rather  than  not  be  in  the  fashion. 

Freak  fashions  are  adopted  in  order  to  attract  the  eye 
of  others,  and  the  more  pronounced  the  freak  the  more 
eyes  are  attracted. 

Probably  the  greatest  crime  of  high  society  is  to  make 
idleness  appear  the  better  part,  or  if  not  striving  to  make 
converts  to  idleness,  at  least  so  living  as  to  make  idleness 
compulsory.  No  young  woman  can  dance  and  laugh  her 
life  through  and  become  a  fit  wife  for  any  self-respecting 
man,  rich  or  poor. 

England's  aristocracy  ceased  working  with  its  hands 
some  centuries  ago;  America's  aristocracy  worked  on  and 


VAGARIES    OF    SOCIETY  435 

openly  until  after  the  civil  war,  when  it  found  the  head 
the  more  profitable  member.  Others  are  still  working 
with  their  hands  who  are  yet  to  appear. 

Service  is  pronounced  degrading.  The  servant  was  not 
long  since  a  slave. 

As  for  the  senseless  practice  of  tipping,  it  is  simply  an- 
other phase  of  bribery  and  human  abasement.  It  is  im- 
moral and  servile,  a  species  of  blackmail  originating  in 
vanity  and  kept  alive  by  cowardice.  It  is  a  sort  of  caddish- 
ness  utterly  unworthy  of  any  self-respecting  people. 

There  are  grades  of  servile  labor.  In  society  a  woman 
must  be  as  worthless  as  possible;  if  she  does  any  thing 
useful  outside  of  her  domestic  duties  she  loses  caste;  if 
she  takes  pay  for  her  work  she  is  ostracized. 

Wealthy  boys  have  been  known  to  work,  to  improve 
their  minds  and  increase  their  usefulness;  he  who  is  not 
prepared  to  do  this,  better  sell  all  that  he  hath  and  gamble 
away  the  money. 

Let  not  the  reader  regard  this  Retrospection  as  a 
sombre  strain  of  pessimism,  or  as  groans  from  the  pit  of 
Acheron.  The  writer  is  of  hopeful  temperament.  He 
sees  more  glory  in  the  future  for  his  country  than  may  be 
found  in  the  Apocalypse.  He  claims,  in  treating  of  the 
past  and  present,  the  moderate  ability  of  recognizing  the 
elements  of  life  and  the  elements  of  death,  and  of  know- 
ing bad  men  when  he  sees  them,  whether  in  the  spheres 
of  capital  or  labor,  whether  bankers,  bribers,  or  bulldozers. 

Of  good  society,  of  the  best  in  the  world,  pure  and 
intelligent  women  and  honest  and  able  men,  there  is  in 
these  United  States  a  thousand  times  more  than  of  that 
corruption  called  high  society.  And  because  this  corrup- 
tion affords  few  pleasing  thoughts  to  the  healthy  mind  is 
no  reason  for  not  denouncing  it. 


CHAPTER   XXIII 

WASTE     IN     EDUCATION 

SINCE  in  the  economics  of  nature  it  is  decreed  that 
every  person  born  into  the  world  shall  draw  his  fill 
from  the  sources  of  knowledge,  each  for  himself,  and  by 
slow  degrees  as  he  is  able  to  retain  the  immortal  truths, 
it  is  clearly  to  be  seen  that  if  any  considerable  progress 
is  to  be  expected  in  the  short  lifetime  allowed,  continual 
assistance  is  necessary  all  along  the  line  from  those  who 
go  before  to  those  who  come  after. 

Speaking  after  the  manner  of  men  it  is  wasteful  on 
the  part  of  nature,  or  would  so  seem  were  it  not  true  that 
it  is  the  nature  of  nature  to  be  wasteful,  forever  making 
oceans  of  little  fish  to  feed  the  big  fish  which  are  good 
for  nothing  when  fed,  not  to  mention  the  begemmed  cav- 
erns and  the  forests  of  unseen  blushing  flowers,  and  were 
it  not  true  that  with  nature  time  and  eternity  are  one; 
it  seems  a  waste,  I  say  that  we  should  not  be  able  to 
inherit  and  utilize  the  learning  of  our  forebears,  as  we 
inherit  farms  and  merchandise,  but  that  the  past  should 
be  lost  to  the  future  save  only  the  little  that  is  passed  on 
from  one  generation  to  another,  or  wrapped  in  books  and 
preserved  in  the  world's  storehouses  of  human  experiences. 

What  is  waste  in  education?  What  is  waste  of  any 
sort?  We  are  told  that  no  atom  of  substance  or  strand 
of  force  ever  drops  out  of  the  universe;  wherefore  there 
is  no  waste.  Sport  is  not  waste;  is  vice?  Surely  time, 
which  is  neither  substance  nor  force,  and  which  with 
mortals  is  limited,  may  be  wasted,  and  he  who  eats  to 
gluttony  or  drinks  to  drunkenness  wastes  his  strength,  as 
he  who  sells  his  honor  wastes  his  manhood. 

436 


WASTE    IN   EDUCATION  437 

We  should  not  regard  the  time  and  money  spent  in 
experimental,  if  laudable  and  sensible  effort  as  wasted. 
Waste  in  education,  I  should  say,  is  where  the  education, 
or  the  effort,  is  more  harmful  than  beneficial,  and  that 
such  conditions  sometimes  exist  under  the  present  loose 
and  lumbering  systems  it  is  not  difficult  to  see. 

We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident  that  knowledge 
gives  the  power  to  mind  over  matter;  that  intellectual  de- 
velopment is  civilization;  that  education  is  the  backbone 
of  the  Republic,  that  schools  are  the  bulwark  of  the  na- 
tion, and  the  rest. 

Self-evident  also  are  the  facts  to  those  who  will  see 
them  that  education  is  worth  all  it  costs,  though  it  costs 
many  times  more  than  it  would  under  better  systems; 
that  there  is  more  education  of  some  kinds  than  is  good 
for  the  people,  and  that  so  many  free  schools  and  free 
universities  are  not  conducive  to  the  highest  well-being 
of  society.  Mayhap,  also,  the  wise  ones  of  the  not  too 
distant  future  will  look  back  and  wonder  how  the  people 
of  the  United  States  should  not  see  that  half  of  their  free 
higher  education  is  worse  than  thrown  away. 

All  the  same  education  is  imperative,  though  what  one 
learns  in  the  school  is  the  least  necessary  of  the  knowl- 
edge required  for  a  successful  career  through  life.  Aca- 
demic facts  alone  are  a  small  part  of  education. 

Education  with  us  is  an  obsession.  Know  thyself;  en- 
large and  strengthen  your  mental  powers;  there  is  no  other 
way  of  approach  to  the  higher  American  ideals. 

What  is  the  purpose  of  education?  Is  it  to  make  men 
better  or  only  brighter  ?  What  is  the  purpose  of  religion  ? 
Is  it  to  make  men  moral  or  only  superstitious?  How  are 
these  two  social  forces  at  present  working  in  the  United 
States  of  America?  Are  people  becoming  better  or  only 
abler  and  more  subtle?  Are  they  becoming  more  moral 
or  only  hugging  the  more  desperately  to  ancient  super- 
stitions ? 

The  clergyman  tells  us  that  the  salvation  of  the  state 
15 


438  RETROSPECTION 

rests  upon  the  church.  The  educator  declares  that  the 
reformation  of  the  criminal  lies  in  education.  Christian- 
ity, recognized  as  the  highest  and  purest  form  of  religion, 
has  been  in  operation  for  nearly  two  thousand  years.  It 
has  brought  to  grief  many  nations;  those  which  it  has 
saved,  whatever  that  may  mean,  can  be  discerned  only 
by  the  eyes  of  faith.  As  for  education,  it  is  nowhere  more 
highly  honored,  and  has  nowhere  made  greater  progress 
than  in  the  United  States,  where  crime  in  high  places  has 
kept  not  only  abreast  but  often  well  in  advance  of  it. 

Why  not  apply  business  methods  to  education  as  well 
as  to  labor  problems  or  to  government  ?  It  is  only  calling 
to  our  aid  the  exercise  of  common-sense. 

Education  to  be  worth  anything  must  be  practical 
rather  than  formal.  A  hundred  years  ago  to  learn  a  little 
Latin  was  education;  with  it  one  might  go  forth  into  the 
world  an  educated  gentleman;  nor  can  we  say  that  a 
knowledge  of  horse-shoeing  would  have  served  him  better 
when  the  Latin  and  not  the  horse-shoeing  was  the  hall- 
mark of  intellectual  intercourse. 

So  may  our  present  system  appear  to  others  a  hundred 
years  hence. 

Three-fourths  of  those  who  are  attending  high  school 
or  sauntering  through  a  free  university  should  be  at  work 
on  the  farm  or  in  a  factory.  Agriculture  as  well  as  manu- 
factures suffers  from  the  inefficiency  and  high  cost  of  labor. 
The  tendency  of  the  farmer's  sons  and  daughters  is  to 
abandon  parents  and  the  homestead  as  soon  as  they  be- 
come of  much  use  to  them,  and  take  up  with  town  life 
where  the  opportunities  for  both  good  and  evil  are  greater 
than  in  the  country. 

It  were  better  for  the  young  if  less  were  done  for  them 
and  they  were  required  to  do  more  for  themselves. 

Why  should  the  state  give  a  university  education  free 
when  the  result  is  only  injury  both  to  the  state  and  to  the 
individual?  The  examiner  cannot  tell  how  the  applicant 
will  turn  out,  but  he  can  make  up  his  mind  to  some 


WASTE   IN   EDUCATION  439 

things  and  give  orders  accordingly.  One  cannot  tell  a 
Euef  at  the  beginning,  else  in  his  case  not  only  the  cost 
of  the  education  might  have  been  saved,  but  the  franchises 
he  stole,  the  cost  of  trial  and  imprisonment, — the  cost  to 
the  public  of  this  one  little  rascal  alone  amounts  at  least 
to  half  a  million  dollars. 

On  every  side  we  see  thousands  of  young  men  whose 
lives  have  been  spoiled  by  college  life,  not  necessarily  by 
idleness  or  dissipation,  but  by  the  erroneous  conception 
of  ideals  and  the  misdirected  efforts  for  the  attainment  of 
fancied  benefits.  The  evil  comes  not  so  much  from  bad 
habits  contracted  at  college  as  from  lack  of  good  and  use- 
ful habits  which  might  elsewhere  have  been  formed  under 
other  and  more  favorable  conditions. 

To  the  youth  whose  financial  future  is  secured  to  him, 
who  has  a  place  awaiting  him  in  his  father's  factory  or 
office,  and  to  whom  business  is  to  be  a  pastime  rather  than 
food-provider,  the  higher  education  is  not  harmful,  as  the 
time  and  labor  spent  upon  it  may  be  well  afforded;  but 
let  him  shun  the  university  who  has  his  own  way  to  make 
in  the  world  unless  he  is  sure  of  abilities  far  above  the 
average.  Otherwise  he  lays  out  for  himself  an  impecuni- 
ous life  of  unrewarded  effort,  of  no  value  to  himself  or 
to  any  one  else. 

And  would  not  the  university  do  well  instead  of  spend- 
ing its  resources  teaching  idiots  at  home  and  heathen 
abroad,  to  use  some  discrimination  as  to  whom  and  what 
quality  it  is  worth  while  to  receive,  and  not  spoil  so  many 
good  farm  hands  and  mechanics. 

Many  and  great  evils,  many  a  sad  failure  in  life 
might  be  avoided  were  every  young  man  who  presented 
himself  as  a  candidate  for  a  four  years'  course  of  instruc- 
tion at  the  expense  of  the  state  made  to  pass  through  a 
thorough  examination  by  one  worldly  wise  of  clear  dis- 
cernment and  practical  good  sense,  as  to  his  capabilities 
and  as  to  why  he  was  there,  what  he  had  left  behind,  and 
what  he  aimed  to  accomplish. 


440  KETROSPECTION 

If  the  examiner  did  his  duty,  three-fourths  of  those 
who  applied  would  be  sent  away  with  kind  words  of  ad- 
vice, which  if  followed  would  lead  the  aspirant  for  easy 
fame  into  happier  and  more  successful  ways  than  trailing 
through  objectless  courses  of  irrelevant  studies,  finally  to 
be  pitched  out  into  the  world  at  the  tail  of  the  machine, 
of  far  less  value  to  himself  or  others  than  when  he  began. 

Then  those  that  remained  should  be  charged  a  moderate 
tuition,  lest  they  learned  to  value  lightly  what  had  cost 
them  nothing.  In  a  word,  let  rudimentary  education  be 
ample  and  free,  and  leave  the  higher  realms  of  effort  to 
those  who  show  some  promise  of  being  able  to  cope  with 
higher  things  and  to  meet  the  new  difficulties  which  there 
present  themselves  with  some  promise  of  success.  Thus 
much  more  good  will  be  accomplished,  and  some  of  the 
thousands  of  disasters  and  failures  following  a  college 
course  may  be  escaped. 

More  serious  than  all  else  as  the  result  of  over-educa- 
tion is  the  depopulation  of  the  rural  districts  and  over- 
crowding of  the  cities.  About  half  the  population  of  the 
United  States  is  urban,  one-tenth  of  the  ninety  millions 
occupying  three  cities,  New  York,  Philadelphia  and  Chi- 
cago. Producers  are  needed  in  our  country  rather  than 
professors, — more  work  and  less  talk. 

Farming  is  an  independent  and  honorable  occupation. 
Not  one-half  of  our  available  lands  is  utilized.  There 
are  very  few  good  reliable  farm  hands  to  be  found  among 
the  farmers,  in  some  quarters  none  at  all.  Boys  and  girls 
by  scraping  together  enough  to  eat  manage  to  lounge 
through  a  course  of  study,  at  the  end  of  which  they  call 
themselves  educated,  take  a  cheap  room  for  an  office,  and 
distress  themselves  and  others  for  the  rest  of  their  lives. 
Some  call  this  sort  of  thing  laudable  ambition. 

As  to  the  young  women  who  choose  a  riotous  life  of 
innocent  enjoyment  to  the  quieter  duties  of  domesticity, 
they  are  already  largely  spoiled  by  indulgent  parents  be- 
fore leaving  home.  The  parlor  and  the  piano,  young  men 


WASTE    IN   EDUCATION  441 

and  automobiles,  these  are  their  province.  Leaving  to 
their  mother  the  kitchen  work  and  their  father  at  the 
plow,  they  themselves  knowing  little  and  caring  less  about 
how  to  cook  or  sew  or  do  anything  useful,  they  are  going 
in  for  the  higher  education,  they  say,  the  esthetic  life,  as 
they  call  a  smatter  of  foreign  languages,  some  cheap  phi- 
osophy,  and  a  little  poor  play-acting  and  society  manners, 
just  enough  to  make  them  ashamed  of  their  parents,  who 
henceforth  and  forever  are  to  continue  the  work  that  is  to 
support  the  useless  daughter  in  idleness. 

And  the  town  boy,  after  his  college  days  are  over,  when 
urged  to  choose  an  occupation  and  go  to  work  by  a  parent 
who  believes  in  work  for  work's  sake,  where  there  is  no 
other  incentive,  who  sees  in  work  the  great  civilizer  and 
panacea,  and  the  only  one,  my  young  gentleman  from 
Harvard  says,  "I  will  play  porter  and  errand  boy  at  thirty 
dollars  a  month  if  you  want  me  to,  but  I  would  rather  live 
on  my  moderate  allowance  and  enjoy  life  as  I  go  along  if 
you  don't  mind." 

Needless  to  say,  the  parent  subsides,  seeing  nothing  in 
the  situation  of  that  spirit  of  success  which  impels  the 
ambitious  boy  to  pick  up  pins  on  the  side-walk,  polish  up 
the  handle  of  the  big  front  door,  and  marry  the  banker's 
daughter. 

In  times  past  when  to  know  Latin  and  Greek  was  an 
education,  it  was  still  worse,  as  education  denoted  the 
gentleman,  and  the  gentleman  ipso  facto  was  excluded 
from  any  useful  occupation.  It  took  even  educators  a 
long  time  to  learn  that  there  is  no  knowledge  wrapped  up 
in  a  language,  living  or  dead.  It  is  beginning  to  be  pretty 
well  understood,  further,  that  there  is  but  little  knowledge 
in  a  college  education ;  that  boys  are  sent  to  the  university 
to  learn  how  to  learn,  and  to  make  pleasant  or  profitable 
acquaintances,  which  is  all  very  well  for  those  who  can 
afford  it. 

Education,  proper,  begins,  if  it  begins  at  all,  after 
leaving  the  university.  As  a  rule  it  does  not  begin  at  all. 


442  RETROSPECTION 

The  young  person,  male  or  female,  has  graduated,  can 
produce  a  certificate  to  that  effect,  which  might  mean 
something  as  affecting  competency  to  teach  reading  writ- 
ing and  arithmetic  in  a  primary  school,  but  further  than 
that  has  no  significance  whatever.  The  Latin  learned 
when  freshman  is  gone  before  he  is  sophomore,  and  of  all 
his  studies  from  books  little  knowledge  of  them  remains 
after  graduation  for  a  profession. 

When  ready  to  practice,  the  young  man  who  has  pre- 
pared himself  to  the  best  of  his  ability  and  with  no  small 
labor  finds  the  field  occupied  and  overflowing.  In  a  none 
too  large  city  are  a  thousand  doctors  and  two  thousand 
lawyers,  one-half  of  whom  by  hook  or  by  crook  just  man- 
age to  live — and  it  would  not  matter  greatly  should  they 
not  manage  to  live;  one-quarter  of  them  by  working  ten 
or  twelve  hours  a  day  secure  a  return  equal  to  the  wage 
of  a  mechanic  who  works  eight  hours  a  day  with  a  half 
day  off  for  rest  and  recreation  every  week;  ten  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  may  make  a  good  living,  and  five  per  cent, 
achieve  distinction  and  a  fortune  by  the  time  they  are  too 
old  to  enjoy  them. 

Yes,  there  is  always  room  at  the  top,  but  it  is  too  often 
wind  rather  than  dead  weight  that  carries  one  there. 

Better  a  strong  mind  with  no  education  than  a  weak 
one  overburdened  with  learning.  Among  America's  great 
men  two  of  the  greatest,  Abraham  Lincoln  and  Benito 
Juarez,  had  scarcely  any  school  education  at  all. 

It  is  safe  to  say  that  in  every  other  graduate  from  a 
university  is  a  young  man  spoiled  for  a  farmer,  a  me- 
chanic, or  a  merchant. 

Why  spoiled?  Is  not  acquired  knowledge  good  for 
any  one  in  any  walk  of  life  ? 

The  acquisition  of  knowledge  is  always  beneficial  and 
praiseworthy,  whether  drawn  from  a  college  or  a  saw- 
mill. There  are  the  habits  acquired,  the  trend  of  mind 
and  body  given  during  this  formative  period,  the  most 
important  of  the  boy's  life,  which  prevent  that  hearty 


WASTE    IN    EDUCATION  443 

application  to  labor  or  business  which  alone  brings  suc- 
cess. No  business  man  will  employ  a  youth  because  of  a 
college  education,  though  he  may  do  so  in  spite  of  it. 

To  become  proficient  in  business  the  boy  must  begin 
early,  say  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  fifteen  years;  he  must 
become  imbued  with  his  environment  until  every  detail 
is  familiar,  and  the  whole  routine  is  as  a  second  nature. 
A  little  learning  there  is  better  than  too  much.  As  Father 
Tom  said  to  the  pope,  "You  put  in  the  rum,  and  you  put 
in  the  sugar,  and  every  drop  of  water  after  that  spoils 
the  punch." 

What  a  commentary  on  the  higher  education  is  this, 
that  scarcely  one  who  has  achieved  distinction  in  commerce, 
industry,  or  finance  enjoyed  a  university  education,  and 
that  in  regard  to  our  most  noted  criminals,  giants  of  finance 
and  industry,  grafters,  bribers,  government  swindlers,  and 
purchasers  of  place,  a  due  proportion  of  them  are  college 
graduates ! 

Is  it  not  the  educated  and  wealthy  rather  than  the 
illiterate  and  poor  that  bring  nations  to  degradation  and 
ruin?  France  educated  Napoleon;  England  left  Shake- 
speare to  educate  himself. 

President  Eliot,  the  most  broad-minded  and  liberal 
of  all  America's  great  educators,  and  yet  practical  and 
thorough  withal,  allowed  his  students  the  widest  latitude 
in  the  selection  of  courses  and  the  time  to  be  spent  on 
them,  whether  three  years  or  four.  He  was  among  the 
first  of  New  Englanders  to  abolish  compulsory  chapel  and 
the  superstition  of  dead  languages.  He  tolerated  the- 
ological study,  even  permitting  Professor  James  to  ven- 
tilate his  spiritualistic  fantasies,  which  he  called  psycho- 
logical philosophy.  He  furthermore  favored  on  the  part 
of  students  the  early  selection  of  a  career,  if  any  such 
they  intended  to  follow,  so  that  college  work  might  prove 
of  some  practical  use  afterward. 

Few  of  our  foremost  educators,  as  well  as  thinking 
men  of  business,  will  now  deny  that  education  in  a  wrong 


444  KETKOSPECTION 

direction  is  worse  than  none.  What  may  be  considered  a 
wrong  direction  depends  upon  conditions,  upon  the  youth's 
necessities  and  upon  one's  idea  of  the  value  and  use  of 
time  and  money,  whether  it  is  not  better  to  let  the  former 
drift  and  scatter  the  latter  in  educational  extravagance  than 
in  the  extravaganzas  of  society  and  sportive  life;  whether 
it  is  better  to  waste  wealth  or  hoard  it,  or  save  it  for  future 
potentialities. 

Waste  makes  want,  says  the  copy  book.  But  does  it? 
Young  men  are  growing  wealth-wise  in  these  latter  days 
under  the  tuition  of  graft  and  greed  on  the  part  of  their 
elders.  It  is  no  longer  the  fashion  among  the  more  decent 
of  the  young  men  to  assume  an  air  of  smartness  and  squan- 
der money  for  the  fun  of  it,  as  was  in  vogue  in  the  time 
of  their  fathers.  They  do  not  make  asses  of  themselves 
in  that  way.  Young  Astorbilt  now  scowls  and  growls 
when  cheated  out  of  a  quarter,  very  like  poorer  mortals. 

Hence  it  is  neither  necessary  nor  good  form  either  to 
waste  or  hoard,  particularly  to  the  extent  somewhat  com- 
mon in  America.  Here  less  waste  would  signify  less  work, 
less  wealth-making  work,  leaving  more  time  for  the  intel- 
lectual and  the  esthetic.  We  are  well  within  the  mark 
when  we  say  that  more  than  half  of  all  our  national  wealth 
has  been  wasted,  that  which  comes  from  natural  resources 
as  well  as  returns  from  taxation. 

First,  there  are  battle-ships  and  barracks,  navy  and 
standing  army.  Why  arm  and  place  a  chip  on  the  shoul- 
der of  the  Panama  canal  when  all  the  nations  would  surely 
agree  to  leave  it  in  peace?  In  the  midst  of  the  ever- 
wrangling  nations  of  Europe,  Switzerland  gets  along  very 
well  without  army  or  navy.  I  do  not  say  that  the  United 
States  needs  neither,  but  surely  something  better  might  be 
done  with  the  people's  money  than  to  rig  up  a  hundred 
million  dollar  fleet  and  go  prancing  round  the  world  like  a 
big  Indian  in  his  war  paint  hunting  for  a  fight. 

Indeed,  the  attitude  of  the  great  afraid,  the  great  na- 
tions of  civilization,  is  much  the  same  as  was  that  of  the 


WASTE    IN   EDUCATION  445 

savages  of  America,  each  tribe  living  in  perpetual  fear 
of  an  attack  by  its  neighbor,  and  holding  itself  in  readiness 
accordingly. 

Then  the  great  army  of  law-makers  and  office  holders 
waste  three-fourths  of  their  time  in  work  to  retain  office 
or  for  reelection.  How  much  of  the  people 's  time  and  money 
did  Mr.  Taft  spend  in  his  disgraceful  squabble  for  reelec- 
tion, a  matter  affecting  only  his  private  interests  and  per- 
sonal spite?  The  horde  of  paupers  on  the  pension 
list,  how  many  of  them  or  their  fathers  or  cousins  have 
ever  served  or  done  aught  but  sponge  off  the  Republic? 
A  most  senseless  waste  is  printing  and  loading  the  mails 
with  thousands  of  tons  of  worthless  trash,  much  of  it  never 
looked  at  by  those  to  whom  it  is  sent.  Criminals;  in  dis- 
posing of  them  England  accomplishes  more  in  half  the 
time  and  at  less  than  one-quarter  of  the  cost.  But  Eng- 
land's folly  is  taking  other  directions,  as  in  competitive 
warship-building,  and  in  the  support  of  royalty  and  an 
idle  aristocracy.  So  each  to  his  taste;  let  us  all  scatter 
our  follies  as  we  will.  Death  is  the  chief  factor  of  progress 
in  the  re-sowing  of  wealth. 

In  education  we  good  Americans  have  all  in  common  one 
good  fetish,  which  we  worship  with  a  constancy  superior  to 
our  love  of  graft,  superior  to  our  greed  for  gold,  for  office, 
for  any  kind  of  power  which  will  best  display  the  animal- 
ism still  left  in  us,  whether  or  not  it  makes  us  better  or 
wiser,  we  worship  all  the  same.  We  tax  the  people  to 
graduate  a  Ruef,  and  send  him  forth  to  teach.  He  is  a 
genius  and  we  are  proud  of  him,  the  little  curly  head; 
this  it  is  to  have  institutions  of  learning  on  every  street 
corner.  See  the  new  tricks  that  he  hath  up  his  sleeve; 
behold  how  men,  yea,  great  corporations,  pour  forth  money 
to  see  them,  and  how  the  young  men  admire  and  envy. 
But  gratitude  proves  too  strong  for  our  idol,  and  he  must 
needs  go  to  San  Quentin  and  work  awhile  for  the  state 
which  has  done  so  much  for  him. 

He   leaves  us,   however,   this  reflection,   that  for  one 


446  RETROSPECTION 

who  goes  from  our  universities  to  the  state  prison  there 
are  a  thousand  who  do  not.  That  is  what  education  does 
for  them.  Just  enough  but  not  too  much.  Ruef  was  over- 
educated. 

All  men  are  abnormal  in  one  way  or  another,  and  all 
women,  though  an  all-round  sensible  woman,  if  not  too 
much  the  slave  of  convention,  is  less  abnormal  than  most 
men.  Deflection  appears  most  in  those  whose  educa- 
tion and  lives  have  been  along  a  single  line,  and  the 
ablest  men  along  their  respective  lines  are  the  greatest 
abnormalities. 

The  strength  and  concentration  required  to  achieve  dis- 
tinction and  hold  the  mind  straight  in  a  beaten  path  tends 
to  warp  and  bias  of  mind  outside  of  that  path.  We  have 
only  to  consider  the  parson,  to  compare  the  pedagogue 
and  professor,  the  merchant  and  banker,  while  the  men 
of  law  and  of  medicine  are  notably  faulty  in  their  opin- 
ions, whether  in  or  out  of  their  profession. 

Of  all  our  presidents  probably  the  least  abnormal  was 
Lincoln  and  the  most  so  was  Taft.  The  former  never 
worried  a  university,  while  the  latter  was  early  sterilized 
to  common-sense  by  smiling  conventions  and  the  erudition 
of  judicial  legerdemain.  Nor  was  it  genius  that  made 
Lincoln  one  of  the  best  men  that  ever  lived,  but  honesty, 
integrity,  and  goodness  of  heart  under  the  most  trying 
circumstances. 

Graduates  at  the  universities  are  finished  off  as  at  a 
factory,  in  patterns,  each  class  according  to  its  kind,  in 
mind  and  body,  in  dress  and  deportment,  the  preacher 
after  his  kind,  the  professor  after  his  kind,  the  lawyer, 
the  doctor,  and  the  nondescript,  each  after  his  kind. 

In  the  early  stages  of  political  science  the  taxation  of 
property  for  the  purposes  of  public  education  was  justified 
on  the  ground  of  safe-guarding  the  well-being  of  the 
community;  the  educated  boy  was  less  likely  to  grow 
up  a  criminal  and  become  a  charge  upon  the  state  than 


WASTE   IN   EDUCATION  447 

the  non-educated  boy.  The  time  has  long  since  past  when 
any  such  excuse  was  necessary. 

To  what  lengths  the  educational  fetish  will  cany  the 
American  people,  or  rather  the  aliens  who  control  the 
American  people,  it  is  difficult  to  say.  Substantial  citi- 
zens supply  the  means,  the  unsubstantial  ones  supply  the 
children. 

So  long  as  the  shiftless  voter  can  get  something  for 
nothing,  he  will  take  all  he  can  get.  Not  content  with  the 
ordinary  branches  of  education,  all  that  are  necessary  or 
beneficial,  all  that  it  is  right  or  proper  for  the  people  to 
pay  for,  not  content  with  house,  books,  clothing,  food, 
doctor,  and  wet-nurse,  all  for  nothing,  they  now  aspire 
to  foreign  languages,  music  and  dancing,  and  will  soon 
expect  pound-cake,  champagne,  and  an  automobile.  And 
because  of  the  impecunious  voters  and  the  fetish,  no  one 
dare  say  a  word,  so  that  the  altruistic  obsession  is  likely 
to  run  its  course. 

Where  there  is  so  much  useless  education  scattered 
about  may  not  I  in  this  connection  speak  a  word,  the  im- 
portance of  which  involves  no  principle  of  syntax  or 
psychology,  involves  nothing  more  than  a  discordant  sound 
upon  the  ear?  It  is  simply  to  call  the  attention  of  Cali- 
fornia educators  to  the  misuse  and  wrong  pronunciation 
of  the  Spanish  names  of  familiar  places  and  objects  around 
us,  of  the  true  significance  of  which  the  rising  generation  is 
growing  up  in  lamentable  ignorance. 

I  refer  to  such  phrases  as  Sierra  Nevada  mountains, 
the  Sierras,  Faralone  islands,  the  El  Cajon  valley,  and 
many  others. 

Sierra  means  saw,  the  upturned  teeth  of  which  may 
indicate  a  chain  of  mountain  peaks,  and  so  the  word  has 
come  to  signify  a  range  of  mountains,  of  which  there  are 
many  in  Spanish  countries,  as  Sierra  Madre,  Sierra  de 
Estrella,  Sierra  de  Toledo.  As  there  is  but  one  Sierra  in 


448  RETROSPECTION 

California,  the  Sierra  Nevada,  or  Snowy  Range,  it  is 
proper,  speaking  generally,  to  say  the  Sierra,  but  sierras, 
or  mountains,  is  meaningless,  as  there  are  no  other  moun- 
tain ranges  in  California  bearing  the  name  of  Sierra  aside 
from  the  Sierra  Nevada. 

Faralones  is  a  common  and  not  a  proper  name,  signify- 
ing islands  in  the  form  of  peaked  rocks  rising  abruptly 
from  the  water.  As  there  is  but  one  such  group  near  San 
Francisco  to  which  the  word  is  applied,  it  is  well  to  say  the 
Faralones,  but  not  the  Faralone  islands.  So  the  Sierra 
Nevada  mountains  can  be  translated  only  as  the  Snowy 
Mountains  mountains. 

Cajon  means  box;  figuratively,  a  valley,  so  in  saying 
the  El  Cajon  valley,  a  very  common  expression,  one  says 
the  The  Valley  Valley. 

Mispronunciation  is  still  more  extended.  Doubtless, 
the  Panama  canal  is  as  great  an  achievement  with  the 
first  syllable  accented  as  with  the  last,  but  if  one  cares 
to  know  how  the  natives  spoke  the  word  it  was  with  the 
last  syllable  accented,  panamd,  a  fishing  station.  So  with 
Portola,  the  governor  himself  spoke  and  wrote  his  name 
with  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable,  an  exception  to  the 
rule,  as  Cortes  and  Bogota  are  exceptions. 

Pinole  is  properly  in  three  syllables,  pi-no-le. 

Americans  were  soon  laughed  out  of  saying  San  Josy, 
San  Jo-a-quin;  the  other  instances  above  mentioned  are 
just  as  bad. 

In  the  common  pronunciation  of  the  word  Panama 
there  is  a  double  error,  as  without  the  accent,  following 
the  rule  it  would  be  Pan-am-a.  So  with  Bogota,  which 
would  be  Bo-00-ta,  and  Cor-cZo-va  instead  of  Cordova,  and 
other  like  instances,  sounds  to  native  ears  not  recognizable. 
As  the  natives  pronounced  the  word  Panama  with  the  last 
a  accented,  the  Spaniards  followed  them  in  so  pro- 
nouncing it.  In  Spanish  books  and  manuscripts  the  word 
is  never  without  the  accent.  And  the  same  with  regard  to 
Portola,  Bogota,  Barbara  and  many  others.  If  Porfola 


WASTE   IN   EDUCATION  449 

and  Bogota  why  not  San  Josy  and  Bar&ara?  So  essen- 
tial is  this  accent  in  the  orthography  and  orthoepy  of 
Spanish  words,  those  in  common  use  with  us  and  others, 
that  the  changing  of  it  from  one  letter  to  another  some- 
times changes  the  meaning  of  the  word,  as  Cortes,  a  man's 
name;  cortes,  a  legislative  body.  Paso  Robels  is  commonly 
heard  for  Paso  Ro-bles. 

It  is  perhaps  asking  too  much  of  the  smart  people  of 
so  flourishing  a  city  as  Los  Angeles  to  say  Los  An-hay-les, 
and  how  many  graduates  of  Stanford  say  Paylo  Alto  for 
Pah-lo  Ahl-to,  and  Juni-per-ro  for  Hu-nip-e-ro  Sera. 

Until  it  was  shown  that  the  Germans  had  thrown  in  a 
superfluous  h  into  his  name  as  Vitus  Bering  himself 
wrote  it,  we  saw  everywhere  the  word  Behring  as  applied 
to  the  venturesome  discoverer. 

It  is  not  easy  to  understand  how  young  people  are  to 
be  built  up  in  honesty  and  rectitude  by  holding  before 
them  as  proper  examples  for  their  imitation  such  men 
as  the  founders  of  the  Chicago  or  of  the  Stanford  university. 

Wealth  alone  cannot  make  a  university.  Crime  per- 
chance creeps  in  unobserved  and  hides  itself  in  sacred 
places,  in  the  institution  whose  president  and  professors 
become  apologists  for  the  crooked  ways  of  the  founder,  in 
the  church  whose  pulpit  is  silenced  by  the  support  of  high 
bribers  and  grafters. 

Tainted  money;  that  is  to  say  money  stolen  from  the 
people  and  now  in  part  returned  because  the  thief  has 
more  than  he  wants,  or  dies  childless,  with  no  loss  to  the 
commonwealth  in  consequence. 

A  poor  return  for  all  their  labor  to  see  this  wealth  for 
which  they  gave  their  soul  pass  into  the  hands  of  aliens. 

Those  who  derive  benefit  from  the  use  of  this  money 
should  be  taught  to  regard  the  man  who  gave  it  at  his  true 
worth,  not  as  a  good  and  praiseworthy  person,  however 
lauded  by  hired  clergymen  and  college  officials. 

James  Lick  made   large   bequests,   yet  Lick's   money 


450  RETROSPECTION 

was  not  tainted,  only  sterilized.  There  was  nothing 
tainted  about  Lick,  except  his  soul. 

All  the  money  that  Carnegie  can  pile  on  Rockefeller's, 
hallowed  by  acts  of  congress  and  the  prayers  of  baptist 
priests,  cannot  build  a  Harvard  or  a  Yale,  or  plant  a 
Cornell  in  Washington.  "The  iron  is  enough  for  me," 
says  Carnegie,  "for  with  it  I  can  put  me  up  a  thousand 
everlasting  libraries  without  ever  buying  a  book,  with 
added  institutes  of  many  kinds,  all  Carnegie,  all  so  many 
monuments  to  my  superior  foresight,  a  thousand  tomb- 
stones scattered  the  world  over,  all  bought  by  me  with 
my  iron."  Yet  it  is  a  good  Carnegie  as  the  world  goes, 
who  in  the  name  of  books  provides  places  for  books,  which 
is  better  than  buying  foreign  titles  for  adopted  daughters. 
So  with  time  Scotch  cunning  crystallizes  into  solid  learn- 
ing to  stand  forever  as  Carnegie 's  without  having  cost  him 
a  penny. 

From  the  tainted  money  and  tainted  minds  of  the 
founders,  common-place  instruction  and  the  low  standard 
of  university  life,  the  best  results  could  scarcely  be 
expected. 

The  founders  of  Palo  Alto,  husband  and  wife,  retained 
sole  control  during  their  joint  lives,  which  proved  long 
enough  sufficiently  to  etherealize  Central  Pacific  railway 
morals  to  fit  the  occasion. 

Tainted  money  cannot  buy  the  heredity  and  environ- 
ment that  developed  the  personality  of  Eli  Yale  and  John 
Harvard.  Rockefeller  may  squeeze  and  give,  Stanford 
may  shuffle  and  give,  but  the  atmosphere  of  a  malodorous 
personality  hovers  forever  about  the  place. 

When  a  rich  man  visits  a  school  the  boys  envy  him 
and  resolve  to  become  like  him.  If  Mr.  Rockefeller  is  the 
visitor  he  is  not  introduced  as  the  great  American  appro- 
priator,  but  the  boys  soon  find  it  out  for  themselves. 

It  is  a  poor  way  to  teach  the  young  integrity,  to  im- 
plant in  the  youthful  mind  the  principles  of  honor  and 
equity,  a  poor  way  to  begin  an  education  which  should 


WASTE    IN    EDUCATION  451 

lead  upward  to  the  higher  moral  and  intellectual  life  with 
such  words  as  these:  "My  son,  behold  these  stately  struc- 
tures, built  by  one  whose  only  son  died,  leaving  him  with- 
out a  natural  heir ;  so  having  no  further  use  for  the  money 
on  earth,  and  unable  to  take  it  with  him,  he  bestows  it  for 
the  benefit  of  the  young  and  innocent,  to  teach  them  the 
way  of  truth  and  righteousness,  and  to  cause  the  world  to 
forget  that  the  money  was  stolen. 

"I  hope  you  will  never  steal,  my  son;  it  is  well  to  get 
rich,  but  not  to  defraud, — your  father." 

"See  that  great  telescope  and  the  apparatus  around  it, 
contributed  by  a  very  rich  man,  whose  superior  ability  and 
methods  made  many  poor,  made  men  bankrupt,  and  turned 
out  women  and  children  to  starve.  Get  rich,  my  son,  and 
teach  a  Sunday-school,  but  do  not  starve  little  children 
after  you  have  got  all  their  father's  money." 

"Observe  that  library  building  with  the  maker's  name 
on  it.  He  calls  the  building  his  library.  He  never  buys 
books  but  he  gets  his  name  on  a  great  many  buildings. 
Now  be  a  good  boy  and  don't  try  to  get  rich  and  cheat 
before  you  are  grown  up,  or  if  you  do,  and  you  should 
build  a  fine  library  building  with  your  name  on  it,  I  hope 
you  will  put  some  books  in  it  as  well." 

Money  gives  power,  but  the  power  given  by  money 
fraudulently  obtained  can  never  be  a  power  for  good. 

The  end  sanctifieth  the  means,  saith  the  preacher;  but 
there  are  preachers  who  will  not  take  their  pay  for  preach- 
ing in  ill-gotten  gains,  and  there  are  preachers  who  will 
not  praise  the  iniquitous  deeds  of  iniquitous  men  for 
money  wrongfully  obtained ;  there  are  some  good  men  who 
are  preachers. 

"If  you  study  for  the  ministry,  my  son,  you  will  be 
instructed  to  be  wise  as  a  serpent  and  harmless  as  a  dove. 
If  you  cannot  be  both,  and  have  to  leave  out  one,  it  may 
be  as  well  to  omit  the  dove  part.  And  should  you  take  occa- 
sion to  say  sometimes  that  our  city,  like  Sodom,  was  de- 
stroyed for  its  sins  it  is  not  necessary  to  mention  the  names 


452  RETROSPECTION 

of  the  particular  sinners  of  your  congregation,  or  call  to 
mind  the  fact  that  some  eighty -six  churches  were  burned. ' ' 

Like  a  ban  of  excommunication  tainted  money  for  the 
college  taints  every  one  who  enters  it,  taints  the  president 
and  professors,  taints  the  students  and  their  studies. 
Neither  marble  mausoleums  nor  richly  appointed  house  of 
prayer,  or  other  paraphernalia  of  immortality  can  make 
sweet  the  air  to  those  who  work  for  that  which  good  men 
scorn  and  receive  their  pay  in  orphan's  cries  and  widow's 
tears. 

Yet  among  those  who  have  come  forth  from  Stanford, 
I  am  glad  to  say,  have  been  many  good  men,  professors 
and  students,  who  have  heartily  and  intelligently  espoused 
the  cause  of  honest  government,  of  political  cleanliness  and 
civic  purity,  and  have  done  good  service  in  the  purification 
of  politics. 

Most  encouraging  of  all,  the  damnable  doctrines  of  the 
reactionaries,  of  corporate  capital  and  Big  Business,  the 
doctrine  of  immunity  for  high  criminality  and  punish- 
ment for  the  poor,  the  doctrine  that  the  acquisition  of 
wealth  justifies  the  means,  the  methods  of  the  octopus  and 
the  monuments  of  the  founder  of  their  college  find  little 
favor  with  the  healthy  young  Calif ornians  who  attend  this 
predatory  institution  of  learning,  as  nearly  all  the  stu- 
dents and  most  of  the  professors,  in  all  the  important 
political  issues  of  the  day  are  found  active  on  the  side 
of  honesty  and  good  government. 

An  able  professor  of  Stanford  university,  Doctor  Burt 
Estes  Howard,  thus  speaks  of  the  application  of  ill-gotten 
wealth  to  the  up-bringing  of  young  men,  words  none  the 
less  noble  because  of  the  fact  that  the  worthy  professor 
draws  his  pay  from  the  lootings  of  Leland  Stanford,  the 
evil  effects  of  which  rest  upon  the  shoulders  of  every 
citizen  of  this  state,  and  of  other  states,  to  this  day. 

Says  the  professor:  "The  principal  criticism  of  the 


WASTE    IN   EDUCATION  453 

generosity  to  institutions  of  men  whose  great  fortunes 
have  been  obtained  by  doubtful  methods  and  through  sus- 
picious sources  is  not  alone  that  their  money  comes  coupled 
with  their  own  personal  history,  not  that  the  hope  of  their 
favor  has  an  undesirable  influence  on  certain  forms  of 
teaching  and  on  the  public  utterance  of  college  officials, 
but  that  these  gifts  of  brick  and  mortar  and  money  have  a 
tendency  to  make  the  ideal  endowment  seem  less  valuable 
and  important.  We  cannot  afford  to  have  the  traditions 
of  our  colleges  become  largely  the  traditions  of  certain 
suspiciously  rich  men  who  made  money  and  built  build- 
ings. It  seems  like  the  mere  hyperbole  of  a  jealous  and 
disappointed  spirit  to  affirm  that  the  corrupt  practices 
of  the  unjustly  rich  are  less  harmful  than  their  benevo- 
lences, but  the  statement  will  bear  argument  and  furnish 
much  reason  for  belief  in  its  accuracy.  It  is  because  this 
benevolence  tends  to  create  in  the  popular  mind  confusion 
on  a  matter  of  morals  concerning  which  we  cannot  afford 
to  have  confusion.  We  cannot  afford  to  believe  that  the 
seizing  of  special  and  unjust  privileges,  or  the  use  of  cor- 
rupt practices  or  oppression,  by  which  enormous  wealth 
is  increasingly  acquired,  may  be  excused  or  palliated  by 
public  gift  or  private  benevolence,  or  by  generosity,  how- 
ever bountiful.  We  cannot  afford  to  let  a  delayed  or 
partial  restitution  acquire  a  false  glamour,  and  under  a 
false  name  become  a  substitute  for  common  honesty." 

In  the  president  and  professors  of  the  noble  University 
of  California  are  united  in  an  eminent  degree  the  learn- 
ing and  refinement  of  the  East  with  the  independence  of 
thought  and  directness  of  the  West.  It  is  a  pleasure  ex- 
quisite and  helpful  to  breathe  the  air  of  Berkeley,  to  look 
out  under  the  purple  haze  of  a  California  morning  through 
the  Golden  Gate  and  into  the  broad  ocean  with  its  endless 
potentialities,  then  turn  and  consider  the  work  that  has 
been  done  for  future  generations,  the  University  buildings 
with  their  gathered  treasures,  the  faculty,  president  and 


454  RETROSPECTION 

professors,  with  bright  minds  appreciative  of  their  work 
and  privileges  and  ready  hands  accustomed  to  highest 
achievement.  How  shall  it  seem  to  those  who  walk  these 
grounds  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  years  hence,  the  efforts 
and  accomplishments  of  to-day ! 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

METROPOLITAN   SAN  FRANCISCO 

YOUNG,  though  the  hair  is  sprinkled  with  gray,  and 
around  the  eyes  and  on  the  ample  forehead  are 
gathered  wrinkles,  the  marks  of  conflict.  Artists  picture 
California  as  a  voluptuous  woman.  That  is  as  may  be, 
San  Francisco  is  a  strong  man;  immature,  though  ripe  in 
experience  beyond  his  years,  the  pathway  dark  and  sinu- 
ous, sometimes,  with  here  and  there  a  pitfall ;  yet  the  face 
is  flushed  with  high  ideals  and  bright  with  promise,  the 
heart  warm  and  kind  toward  all,  and  withal  a  mind  full 
of  high  aspirations  and  noble  impulses. 

No  Romulus  and  Remus  here,  no  refugee  on  Venetian 
mud-flat,  this  sand-blown  son  of  the  sturdy  friar,  but  a 
young  giant,  in  whose  veins  flows  the  best  blood  of  all  the 
nations,  and  whose  seat  and  title  in  the  not  too  distant 
future  should  be  that  of  Lord  High  Chancellor  of  the 
Economic  World.  For  so  nature  has  decreed,  and  man's 
intervention  shall  not  prevail  against  it.  Nature  remains, 
while  men  come  and  go;  nature's  laws  are  immutable, 
while  man  is  but  the  victim  of  necessity.  God  made  the 
bay  of  San  Francisco,  established  the  soil  and  climate  of 
California,  and  threw  open  the  Golden  Gate;  man  per- 
force must  follow  the  finger  of  destiny  lest  worse  befall. 

It's  a  pity,  even  though  it  brings  a  blush  upon  the 
bronzed  cheek  of  our  Seraphic  Father,  that  where  so  much 
virility  is  required  a  city  must  re-sex  itself,  even  to  be- 
come such  a  woman  as  Chicago  emblemizes,  who  wears 
short  skirts,  straddles,  and  says,  "I  will." 

It  was  christened  a  man,  howsoever  at  times  it  may 

455 


456  RETROSPECTION 

act  like  a  woman.  Son  of  a  saint,  if  a  saint  may  have  a 
son,  the  foster-father  a  friar,  Junipero  Sera,  of  the  college 
of  San  Fernando  in  Mexico. 

As  they  journeyed  by  land  for  the  great  bay  of  which 
they  had  heard  mariners  speak,  one  of  them  said,  "We 
have  as  yet  given  no  mission  to  our  Seraphic  Father,  Saint 
Francis. ' ' 

"If  Saint  Francis  wants  a  mission  let  him  show  us  a 
good  harbor,"  quoth  Father  Junipero. 

Our  Seraphic  Saint  Francis  showed  the  harbor  and 
got  the  mission. 

But  before  Saint  Francis  was  the  Almighty  who  made 
this  harbor,  and  who  I  am  constrained  to  believe  made  it 
for  some  purpose  befitting  saints  and  sinners  alike. 

Quite  unexpectedly  these  Franciscan  friars  found 
themselves  camping  in  the  chaparral  overlooking  the  Gold- 
en Gate.  Their  order  had  been  the  first  to  enter  Lower 
California  with  the  Jesuits,  1596-1683,  but  when  upon 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  in  1767  the  Dominicans 
claimed  the  right  to  share  in  the  work,  the  Franciscans 
said,  ' '  Leave  us  Upper  California  and  we  will  give  you  the 
Peninsula  entirely  to  yourselves,  with  all  of  our  property 
as  well  as  the  missions  of  the  Jesuits,"  and  so  it  was 
arranged. 

A  brief  biography  of  San  Francisco  might  read  like 
this:  Age,  three-quarters  of  a  century;  population,  at 
present  call  it  half  a  million,  in  the  future,  if  far  enough 
distant,  ten  millions;  begins  life  as  a  hide  and  tallow 
town  called  Yerba  Buena  with  one  white  tent  in  1835;  a 
year  later  sees  a  small  frame  house  added,  in  which  two 
years  after  a  child  is  born;  population  in  1842,  196;  in 
1847,  451;  in  1848,  850,  occupying  200  board  and  cloth 
houses;  "fall  of  '49  and  spring  of  '50,"  50,000,  variant, 
and  500  ships  at  anchor  in  the  bay. 

Then  out  of  the  mist  come  Sam  Brannan  and  his  Mor- 
mons; up  from  the  mud  arise  Mike  Reese  and  Emperor 
Norton;  James  Lick  appears,  and  Mark  Twain,  and  Noah 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          457 

Brooks,  while  publicans  and  sinners  come  in  from  over 
the  mountains  and  out  of  the  east.  Bartlett,  the  first 
alcalde,  changes  the  name  of  the  town  to  that  of  the  bay. 
A  spasm  of  crime  is  followed  by  a  spasm  of  extermina- 
tion; enter  Isaac  Bluxome,  exit  Billy  Mulligan,  and  the 
city  proceeds  apace. 

James  Lick  was  a  man  born  out  of  harmony  with  the 
universe,  a  discord  in  the  music  of  the  spheres.  He  hated 
God  and  God  repented  having  made  him.  He  hated  all 
his  relatives,  because  they  were  his  relatives,  and  little 
wonder  he  hated  them  if  they  were  like  him.  He  hated 
his  illegitimate  son,  and  would  have  hated  him  more  had 
he  been  fairly  born. 

Yet  James  Lick  was  not  a  bad  man  as  bad  men  go 
nowadays.  He  made  his  money  honestly,  kept  no  cor- 
ruption fund,  and  left  it  decently  when  he  died;  left  it 
with  regret,  not  so  much  from  love  of  it,  as  because  it 
troubled  him  that  any  one  should  be  benefited  by  it. 

He  was  in  no  respect  a  typical  Californian,  for  Cali- 
fornians  in  the  early  days  were  not. cranks;  if  so  be  any 
one  should  begin  in  that  way  the  crankiness  would  soon 
be  taken  out  of  him.  He  came  to  California  from  South 
America,  in  1849  with  thirty  thousand  dollars  which  he 
had  made  in  pianos,  and  built  a  flour-mill  at  San  Jose. 
A  miller  had  once  refused  him  his  daughter  in  marriage 
because  of  his  poverty.  "I  will  show  him  some  day,"  said 
Lick.  So  to  show  him  he  lined  his  San  Jose  mill  with 
polished  mahogany,  though  the  recalcitrate  parent  was 
many  leagues  away. 

Sand-lots  in  those  days  could  be  bought  by  the  front 
vara,  and  western  addition  acreage  as  dairy  farms.  Lick 
bdught  some  varas,  built  the  Lick  house,  lived  and  died 
there,  and  erelong  was  worth  seven  millions.  Seven  mil- 
lions in  1860  were  equivalent  to  seventy  millions  in  1910. 

"What  shall  I  do  with  all  this  money?"  he  groaned, 
as  D.  J.  Staples  sat  beside  him  as  he  lay  dying. 

Staples  suggested  several  things  he  might   give  pos- 


458  RETROSPECTION 

terity  to  play  with,  as  a  telescope,  public  baths,  a  foundling 
depot;  the  Society  of  Incurables,  commonly  called  the  Pio- 
neers, were  always  in  need  of  drink  money,  and  the  Acad- 
emy of  Science  had  bugs  to  buy. 

"How  would  it  do  to  take  a  hundred  vara  lot  and 
set  upon  it  monuments  to  all  my  relatives  and  ancestors; 
it  would  fill  the  living  ones  with  such  refreshing  rage  to 
see  the  money  thus  spent  which  I  might  have  given  to 
them." 

"Yes,"  said  Staples,  "and  label  it  the  Garden  of  the 
Spooks." 

It's  a  pity  Staples  laughed  him  out  of  it,  as  it  would 
come  in  handy  now  as  part  of  the  great  show. 

Seeing  a  row  of  doctors  seated  against  the  wall  on 
the  farther  side  of  the  room,  waiting  for  the  last  great 
change — Doctor  Whitney,  Doctor  Toland,  Doctor  Sharp, 
and  others,  all  of  sufficient  standing  to  send  in  a  respect- 
able bill — he  raised  himself  in  bed,  and  after  staring  at 
them  for  a  moment,  cried  out,  "What  in  hell  are  you  all 
doing  here  ?  Get  out ! ' '  And  the  men  of  medicine  inconti- 
nently took  their  departure. 

And  to  this  day  from  the  top  of  Mount  Hamilton 
learned  men,  modern  star-gazers,  look  through  the  Lick 
telescope  and  see  thirty  thousand  new  worlds  in  a  single 
night,  but  they  see  no  Lick  there. 

It  is  remarkable  how  ignorant  are  people  of  the  east 
and  elsewhere  as  to  the  conditions  of  life  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  or  if  not  ignorant  then  how  indifferent.  A  slight 
earthquake  in  which  two  or  three  pedestrians  may  be 
hurt  by  a  falling  cornice  will  send  a  thousand  persons 
rushing  to  the  Atlantic  side  there  to  encounter  a  blizzard, 
a  flood,  or  a  hot  wave  killing  a  hundred  a  day. 

There  is  no  spot  of  earth  where  there  are  fewer  casual- 
ties. No  enervating  heat,  no  freezing  cold ;  no  sun-strokes, 
electrical  storms,  or  bogs  of  malaria ;  no  devastating  floods, 
no  cyclones  or  tornadoes;  no  famine  or  pestilence.  Two 


METROPOLITAN    SAN    FRANCISCO          459 

tottering  old  women  thrown  to  the  ground  by  a  temblor 
of  moderate  force  will  cause  greater  consternation  through- 
out Christendom  than  a  thousand  slain  in  a  single  day  in 
New  York  Philadelphia  and  Chicago  by  sun-strokes  and 
thunder-storms  alone.  The  official  report  of  the  catas- 
trophe of  1906  gives  266  killed  by  falling  walls,  and  all 
the  deaths  from  earthquakes  along  all  the  centuries,  that 
history  and  tradition  can  give,  including  the  above,  will 
not  bring  the  number  up  to  300.  The  town  has  never 
posed  as  a  pleasure  resort,  but  there  is  no  place  on  earth 
where  a  summer  or  winter  can  be  passed  more  comfortably. 

Cities  that  were  made  by  men  in  their  turn  became  the 
makers  of  men,  and  unless  established  upon  principles  of 
equity  neither  can  endure.  So  have  passed  to  their  ac- 
counting Carthage  and  Palmyra,  Babylon  the  great  has 
fallen,  Nineveh  is  called  to  death  or  repentance  for  her 
sins. 

Whatever  we  who  love  San  Francisco,  who  have  always 
lived  there  and  have  always  loved,  she  whose  life  has  been 
our  life,  whose  early  achievements  fired  our  youthful  blood 
and  whose  later  successes  brought  maturer  pride,  what- 
ever we  can  claim  for  her,  whatever  we  may  fear,  we  feel 
sure  that  the  hateful  megrims  of  her  adolescence  have 
passed,  and  that  our  best  men,  that  all  men,  those  whom 
we  have  loved  and  hated  with  a  hearty  love  and  a  holy 
hatred,  will  bethink  themselves  of  their  city  and  of  their 
duty  in  these  days  of  her  great  regeneration. 

Six  times  the  town  was  destroyed  by  fire  prior  to  the 
great  conflagration  of  1906,  though  there  are  few  to-day 
who  realize  it,  or  even  know  of  it.  Six  several  times 
many  of  the  inhabitants  lost  their  all  and  were  forced  to 
begin  life  anew.  Six  several  times  hope  revived  and  the 
necessary  courage  came,  courage  not  only  to  do  again,  but 
to  do  better  than  before.  True,  men  were  younger  then, 
they  had  not  so  much  to  lose,  they  could  not  choose  but 
hope.  Yet  at  every  one  of  these  fires  there  was  propor- 
tionately greater  loss  and  suffering  than  at  the  last  grand 


460  RETROSPECTION 

catastrophe.  The  inhabitants,  many  of  them,  lost  all  they 
had  and  suffered  unto  death ;  what  more  could  any  one  do  1 

That  their  dying  was  not  comfortable  was  one  thing. 
The  winter  of  1849-50  was  severe.  It  was  unusually  cold 
and  rainy,  and  the  cloth  tents  and  board  houses  scattered 
along  the  muddy  streets  and  over  the  bleak  dunes  afforded 
poor  protection  from  the  weather.  In  them  lay  many 
faint  with  hunger  and  suffering  with  sickness,  notably  that 
insidious  disease,  the  Panama  fever,  which  creeps  into 
the  bones  of  its  victims  and  lies  dormant,  awaiting  some 
sinister  occasion  to  show  itself.  The  main  streets  were 
slush  up  to  the  knees ;  fuel  was  scarce,  and  there  was  little 
water  except  such  as  was  held  in  the  sky.  Household 
comforts  and  conveniences  there  were  none.  The  wet  and 
shivering  denizens  of  the  future  metropolis  found  warmth 
and  brightness  only  in  the  great  gambling  halls,  whose 
lamps  alone  illuminated  the  dismal  streets.  They  suffered, 
but  as  there  were  only  three  thousand  of  them  they  could 
not  make  the  noise  throughout  the  world  that  was  made 
by  the  later  three  hundred  thousand. 

The  first  of  these  fires  was  on  the  24th  of  December, 
1849,  consuming  the  great  gambling  Exchange,  rented  at 
$16,000  a  month,  and  the  Parker  house,  rented  at  $10,000. 
There  were  two  fires  on  the  4th  and  14th  of  May,  1850, 
the  work  of  incendiaries,  which  between  them  laid  in  ashes 
the  entire  business  parts  of  the  town,  wiping  out  the  past, 
bursting  banks,  and  bankrupting  most  of  the  merchants. 

They  did  not  have  to  wait  a  year  for  insurance  money, 
as  none  of  them  were  insured;  so  they  gathered  up  what 
boards  they  were  able  to  obtain — lumber  was  a  dollar  a 
foot — and  were  reerecting  structures  for  incoming  goods 
before  the  ashes  were  cold. 

Times  were  booming;  ships  were  coming  in  every  day, 
each  bringing  something  to  use  or  sell ;  therefore  there  was 
on  the  ground  sufficient  property  for  a  fourth  fire  on  the 
17th  of  September,  1850,  to  foot  up  losses  of  several  millions. 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          461 

With  another  4th  of  May,  1851,  came  the  fifth  great 
fire,  and  on  the  22d  of  June  of  the  same  year  the  sixth,  the 
last  two  coming  so  near  together  as  to  lay  in  ashes  once 
more  the  entire  town,  save  the  scattering  hamlets  on  the 
hillside. 

The  houses  latest  built  were  still  of  wood  and  cloth, 
besides  many  tents.  High  winds  swept  in  over  the  dunes, 
winds  later  checked  by  park  forestry  and  city  buildings; 
the  firemen  were  inefficient  and  incendiarism  was  easy. 
Among  the  structures  consumed  was  the  First  Presbyterian 
church,  constructed  in  New  York  of  wood  and  sent  out  in 
sections  by  sailing  vessels. 

Other  cities  suffered  also.  Sacramento  was  several  times 
burned,  the  fire  of  November  2,  1852,  costing  five  millions 
of  dollars. 

The  fire  of  1906  was  an  experience.  It  is  well  enough 
to  undergo  one  such  to  know  how  it  feels,  but  one  would 
not  like  them  too  often.  The  day  itself  was  not  fatal  to 
many,  but  before  the  year  was  out  thousands  died  in  con- 
sequence, some  from  the  shock,  some  from  a  broken  heart. 
Men  and  women  past  their  prime  found  it  hard  to  have 
their  all,  the  results  of  a  lifetime  of  labor  and  saving,  sud- 
denly swept  away  leaving  them  not  a  dollar.  Without  their 
former  energy,  without  opportunity,  business  connections 
severed,  broken  in  mind  body  and  estate,  their  best  course 
they  said  was  to  die. 

It  was  a  bad  time  generally,  that  just  after  the  catas- 
trophe. We  were  deluged  with  the  bread  of  charity  while 
the  cormorants  of  industry  preyed  upon  the  necessities  of 
the  rebuilders,  Congress  as  a  whole  being  no  whit  better 
than  its  component  parts.  The  price  of  building  material 
was  advanced  to  fill  the  pockets  of  monopolists,  and  the 
concession  asked,  the  temporary  removal  of  the  duty  on 
lumber,  which  had  been  granted  to  Chicago, — was  denied. 
Congress  seemed  to  have  forgetten  what  the  country  owed 
to  California  in  times  past,  more  especially  representatives 


462  RETROSPECTION 

from  the  southern  states.  There  was  little  civic  pride  and 
less  patriotism  at  home.  The  octopus  held  the  country  and 
aliens  filled  the  public  offices.  The  newspapers  sold  them- 
selves to  high  crime  and  high  crime  sold  the  city.  In  high 
society  the  worst  qualities  came  to  the  surface,  and  in  low 
society  were  found  dregs.  "Go  to,"  they  cried,  "we  will 
build  here  a  new  city,  a  Paris  in  America  we  will  make  it, 
and  withal  a  place  of  pleasure  as  well  as  a  mart  of  com- 
merce." 

Paris  in  America !  God  save  us !  Is  that  what  we  want  ? 
Paris  anywhere,  least  of  all  in  America.  Gay,  fluttering, 
hollow,  bloodless,  soulless,  Paris  and  McCarthy;  Paris  and 
Schmitz  and  Ruef,  with  the  lords  of  high  grade  labor  and 
the  lords  of  high  crime  for  ministers  and  satellites. 

There  was  talk  at  first  of  laying  out  the  city  anew,  with 
boulevards  radiating  from  a  civic  centre  and  encircling  the 
surrounding  hills.  Some  slight  improvements  were  made, 
but  nothing  like  the  beautification  at  first  proposed  was  ac- 
complished, though  the  directors  of  the  fair  promised  that 
something  should  be  done  later.  The  buildings,  of  course, 
were  of  a  better  class  than  those  destroyed,  with  rents  cor- 
respondingly increased,  owing  to  increased  cost  of  build- 
ing and  increased  taxes  and  insurance.  The  civic  centre 
laid  out  at  Market  and  Van  Ness  was  a  move  in  the  right 
direction. 

Never  had  women  so  much  money  to  spend ;  never  were 
men  and  women  so  extravagant.  Automobiles  and  dress; 
poker  for  the  sportive,  bridge  for  the  brainless. 

California  has  more  motor  machines  to  the  population 
than  any  other  country  in  the  world,  more  than  any  other 
state  except  New  York  with  five  times  the  population  and 
wealth.  Over  $200,000,000  has  thus  far  been  expended, 
with  current  expenses  of  $100,000,000  a  year,  participated 
in  by  many  who  can  ill  afford  it.  The  city  man  calls  it 
business  and  pleasure,  while  the  farmer  without  pretend- 
ing any  excuse  mortgages  his  land  and  pays  more  for  a 
machine  than  the  cost  of  the  house  he  lives  in.  For  this 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          463 

and  other  extravagances  there  must  some  day  be  a 
reckoning. 

As  rehabilitation  progressed  strangers  who  wished  to 
say  something  pleasant  would  hold  up  their  hands  and  ex- 
claim : ' '  What  wonders ! "  ' '  You  have  done  so  much ! "  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  progress  was  slow,  much  slower  than  we 
had  anticipated.  The  insurance  companies  were  backward 
in  adjusting  claims,  and  it  was  over  a  year  before  any  great 
number  of  the  losers  knew  where  they  stood.  The  com- 
panies did  their  best.  It  was  a  severe  blow  to  them,  one 
out  of  the  ordinary,  and  they  deserve  praise,  though  they 
were  not  backward  in  making  reprisals  afterward.  Even 
when  all  losses  were  paid,  and  some  money  came  in  from 
abroad,  and  there  were  two  or  three  hundred  millions  to 
spend,  still  rebuilding  was  slow,  wages  were  high,  material 
a  monopoly,  high  crime  a  hindrance,  labor  leaders  in  office, 
and  bribery  and  immorality  everywhere. 

As  I  have  said,  there  were  many  noble  men  in  San 
Francisco  in  the  days  of  '49  and  '50,  the  new  and  strange 
conditions  bringing  out  their  best  as  well  as  their  worst 
qualities;  men  who  not  only  talked  right  but  acted,  who 
were  willing  to  make  some  sacrifice  of  self  for  the  public 
good — such  men  as  Thomas  Starr  King,  Thomas  H.  Selby, 
Henry  P.  Coon,  James  King  of  William ;  and  dropping  to 
second  grade,  William  T.  Sherman,  Thomas  0.  Larkin,  H. 
W.  Halleck,  and  John  Parrott. 

Mining  is  a  manly  occupation;  it  stands  for  independ- 
ence and  makes  men  fearless.  At  an  early  day  the  question 
was  asked,  How  long  is  this  yield  of  gold  likely  to  continue  ? 
Coming  to  California  in  the  third  year  of  grace,  I  found 
myself  unexpectedly  present  at  the  turning  of  the  tide. 
Then,  on  to  the  middle  of  the  first  decade  there  were  as 
many  home-returning  as  newly-arriving,  and  as  many 
more  who  would  have  been  glad  to  go  home  if  they  could ; 
many,  alas !  with  souls  dead  within  them,  some  sodden  with 
drink  or  shivering  with  palsied  hope,  destined  never  to  see 
home  again. 


464  RETROSPECTION 

"They  are  all  petered  out,  the  diggings  up  there,"  said 
the  old  miners  as  they  swung  themselves  down  into  the 
towns.  ' '  It  takes  a  mine  to  work  a  mine  now. ' ' 

As  the  steamer  Golden  Gate  paddled  out  of  Acapulco 
harbor  one  morning  in  May,  1852,  with  1500  California 
bound  passengers,  the  Winfield  Scott  appeared  with  600 
homeward  bound,  some  with  hearts  aglow,  others  despond- 
ent, for  not  one  in  five  would  have  twenty  dollars  in  his 
pocket  on  reaching  home.  He  spoke  true  who  said  that 
every  dollar  taken  from  the  mines  cost  two  dollars  to  get 
it.  On  these  two  steamers,  by  way  of  illustration,  we  may 
reckon  the  out-go  at  some  $300,000  with  small  proportion- 
ate returns. 

In  the  city  the  merchants,  who  had  prepared  themselves 
for  more  rather  than  less  business  and  gave  credit  reck- 
lessly to  almost  every  one  who  asked  it,  were  failing,  the 
oldest  commercial  houses  going  like  the  popping  of  corn. 
Many  of  them  had  failed  already  two  or  three  times  before 
1856,  the  frequent  fire  balancing  both  sides  of  the  ledger 
and  closing  consignments  at  a  single  stroke.  There  was 
but  little  if  any  open  disgrace  attached  to  these  failures; 
all  were  in  the  same  boat ;  every  heart  knoweth  its  own  in- 
tegrity— or  the  lack  of  it;  it  was  the  thing  expected;  yet 
there  were  many  abrupt  terminations  of  business  and  de- 
partures from  the  country  by  those  who  might  have  con- 
tinued and  paid  their  debts  had  they  been  so  disposed. 

The  two  great  rival  express  companies  were  Adams  and 
company  and  Wells  Fargo  and  company.  They  had  offices 
in  every  part  of  the  coast  and  carried  letters  as  well  as  pack- 
ages. On  the  arrival  of  the  Sacramento  and  Stockton  boats, 
each  attended  by  a  special  messenger,  about  eight  o'clock 
in  the  evening  the  express  wagons  would  be  waiting  at  the 
wharf,  and  when  the  express-box  was  thrown  ashore  they 
would  dash  off  at  full  speed  for  their  respective  offices. 
This  was  the  idea  of  business  in  those  days,  at  all  events 
it  was  good  advertising ;  just  as  the  Paris  newsman  to-day 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          465 

will  start  on  a  run  for  nowhere  as  soon  as  he  gets  his  papers, 
trusting  to  human  nature  to  call  after  him.  Adams  and 
company  did  a  large  banking  as  well  as  express  business, 
and  was  considered  the  safest  of  all  western  financial  in- 
stitutions. 

The  first  five  hundred  dollars  I  ever  made — and  never 
has  there  been  another  such — I  deposited  with  Adams  and 
company.  "That,"  I  said,  "is  salted  down  to  take  me 
home  some  day."  But  a  friend  wanting  to  use  it,  I  drew 
it  out  of  the  bank  for  him  only  a  day  or  two  before  it 
failed.  There  was  many  another  poor  fellow  similarly 
situated  who  was  not  so  fortunate. 

Wells  Fargo  and  company,  frightened  over  the  failure 
of  Adams  and  company,  closed  their  doors  and  had  a  re- 
ceiver appointed,  Henry  M.  Naglee,  a  wealthy  bankrupt 
banker.  A  cooler  survey  of  their  affairs  next  day  showed 
that  suspension  was  not  necessary,  whereupon  their  re- 
ceiver was  requested  to  resign.  "  Oh !  certainly, ' '  he  said, 
"ten  thousand  dollars;"  which,  considering  the  man,  and 
the  fact  that  they  could  not  afford  to  fail  for  ten  times 
that  amount,  was  thought  to  be  getting  well  out  of  it. 

From  the  first,  and  until  intimidated  by  the  octopus, 
this  city  had  been  composed  of  men  of  pronounced  intel- 
ligence and  energy ;  of  men  active  in  mind  and  body,  who 
knew  not  fear,  who  came  hither  to  accomplish  something 
and  were  bent  upon  doing  it.  There  was  no  non-working 
class,  except  thieves,  swindlers,  demagogues,  and  agitators. 
Manufactures  of  various  sorts  sprang  up  and  flourished 
until  killed  or  crippled  by  labor  leaders  and  the  expulsion 
of  the  Chinese. 

Ever  since  which  time  we  have  been  afraid.  We  meet 
and  talk,  but  dare  not  say  what  we  think.  The  words 
"cheap  labor"  are  taboo;  yet  in  our  hearts  and  minds  we 
know  that  with  labor  restricted  by  ruinous  regulations  and 
held  at  ruinous  rates  manufactures  cannot  prosper,  and 
that  without  manufactures  the  city  cannot  prosper. 


466  RETROSPECTION 

We  beat  the  air  and  cry,  "We  want  more  people,  more 
settlers,  more  farmers,  more  mechanics,  more  laborers." 
' '  When  the  canal  is  finished  there  will  be  a  large  immigra- 
tion; all  classes  will  come,  and  we  shall  have  money,  and 
hired  servants  to  help  us  with  our  work. ' ' 

Why  are  we  forever  so  solicitous  for  more  population? 
Are  not  a  hundred  millions  enough,  half  of  them  so  lately 
aliens  and  the  world 's  refuse  ?  We  have  more  people  here 
already  than  we  know  what  to  do  with,  more  than  we  can 
healthily  absorb,  or  properly  govern,  or  teach  to  govern 
us.  Why  more  settlers  on  lands  they  cannot  work,  more 
farmers  with  crops  they  cannot  gather,  more  working-men 
to  stand  aloof  and  starve  because  the  monopolists  of  labor 
will  not  permit  them  to  work,  more  loafers  and  tramps  to 
beg  and  steal  and  fill  the  prisons  and  hospitals,  more  low- 
grade  immigrants  to  herd  in  the  cities,  fill  sweat-shops,  and 
feed  corruption? 

Let  us  use  a  little  common  sense,  my  influential  friends. 
Let  us  arise,  declare  our  independence,  drive  out  the  dema- 
gogic lords  of  labor,  and  give  ourselves  and  the  working- 
man  freedom. 

You  must  admit,  oh  mighty  men  of  money !  who  corner 
capital,  talk  canal,  and  get  up  a  great  fair,  that  before  this 
one  question  you  stand  palsied,  afraid  to  speak,  while  your 
raw  product  goes  past  your  door  for  manufacture  to  those 
you  have  driven  away. 

To  a  banker  one  day  I  said,  "Unlicensed  unionized  labor 
is  ruining  the  town." 

' '  I  know  it,  but  who  is  going  to  say  so  ?    I  am  not. ' ' 

To  a  merchant  I  said,  "The  labor  leaders  are  strangling 
industry. ' ' 

"I  know  it,  but  who  is  going  to  talk  about  it?"    I  am 
not." 

To  a  politician,  "We  want  cheaper  labor  for  farm  and 
factory." 

"I  know  it,  but  to  say  so  would  ruin  me." 

"You,  yes,  perhaps;  but  would  it  ruin  a  man  to  say  so, 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          467 

a  man  swayed  by  fear  neither  of  loss  of  votes  nor  loss  of 
business?  Did  it  ruin  the  men  of  Baltimore,  of  Duluth, 
of  Minneapolis,  for  them  to  say  so  ? 

So  craven  cupidity  runs  the  gamut. 

So  spake  not  he  who  said,  "I  will  drive  the  Southern 
Pacific  railway  out  of  politics. ' ' 

Nor  he  who  said,  "I  will  finance  this  reform  on  one 
condition:  that  there  shall  be  no  going  back." 

Nor  he  who  said,  ' '  I  will  put  your  mayor  and  his  hench- 
man in  prison  before  the  year  is  out. ' ' 

Nor  he  who  said,  "I  will  make  that  nest  of  criminal 
higher-ups  shake  in  their  shoes  before  I  am  done  with 
them." 

Cowardice  is  an  unseemly  word  which  none  of  us  like 
applied  to  ourselves.  Yet  San  Francisco  is  full  of  it,  and 
has  been  since  the  coming  of  the  Central  Pacific  railroad, 
whose  people  brought  it  over  and  lodged  it  in  banker's 
vaults,  in  the  offices  of  corporate  capital,  hiding  it  under 
the  desks  of  business  men.  Before  this,  Californians  knew 
not  the  meaning  of  the  word ;  they  were  afraid  of  nothing ; 
now  we  tremble  and  whisper  when  we  speak  of  certain  of 
the  most  vital  interests  of  the  city.  Not  so  were  the  men 
who  made  Chicago,  who  made  Birmingham,  who  made 
Cleveland,  Detroitr  and  Kansas  city. 

As  we  have  not  forgotten  those  who  saved  the  city  and 
state  fifty  years  ago,  James  King  of  William,  Charles 
Doane,  William  T.  Coleman,  Thomas  Starr  King,  and  their 
many  associates,  so  let  us  never  forget  those  who  have 
saved  the  state  and  city  in  these  later  days  of  peril,  Hiram 
Johnson,  James  D.  Phelan,  Heney,  Burns,  Langdon,  Long, 
and  the  present  apostle  of  the  new  dispensation,  James 
Rolph. 

When  the  labor  leaders  say,  "If  you  cannot  pick  your 
fruit  except  by  Asiatic  labor,  let  it  go  unpicked;  if  you 
cannot  manufacture  with  labor  at  the  rates  fixed  by  us 
you  can  go  without  manufactures;"  if  the  men  of  San 
Francisco  are  satisfied  to  let  it  rest  at  that  there  is  nothing 


468  RETROSPECTION 

more  to  be  said.  Not  only  do  the  better  class  of  working- 
men  refuse  factory  labor  for  themselves,  but  they  refuse 
it  for  their  children. 

While  Los  Angeles,  Seattle,  and  Portland  take  and 
maintain  a  manly  stand  for  independence  in  industrial 
affairs,  and  prosper  accordingly,  San  Francisco  slinks 
away,  shirks  the  issue,  and  stifles  her  glorious  opportunities 
under  a  load  of  personal  and  corporate  cowardice. 

The  once  self-reliant  individualism  that  was  our  boast, 
the  individualism  that  rouses  ambition  and  fosters  courage, 
it  seems  has  disappeared  from  our  midst,  or  lies  buried  in 
cliques  and  cabals.  The  individualism  of  to-day  is  differ- 
ent, holding  men  apart  and  depriving  them  of  independent 
thought  and  action,  thus  leaving  them  an  easy  prey  for 
the  spoiler. 

During  the  last  half  century  manufacturing  centres 
have  moved  from  the  east  to  the  mid-continent  states.  One 
move  more  will  carry  them  to  the  Pacific — to  Seattle  or 
Los  Angeles,  if  labor  conditions  at  San  Francisco  remain 
as  they  are  now.  With  labor  free  and  manly,  independent 
business  men,  men  unselfish  and  unafraid,  we  should  see 
the  great  inland  factories  of  the  United  States  moving  to 
San  Francisco,  where  they  would  have  a  perfect  climate 
and  the  best  of  food  possibilities,  and  be  stationed  upon 
what  they  would  make  the  world's  highway  of  commerce 
and  industries. 

It  shows  what  may  be  done,  when  we  consider  that  in 
spite  of  all  our  failures  intelligently  to  meet  the  issue  and 
properly  avail  ourselves  of  the  opportunity  before  us,  the 
trade  of  the  United  States  with  Latin  America  has  in- 
creased during  the  past  decade  from  one  and  a  half  billions 
to  nine  billions  of  dollars. 

Let  the  influential  men  of  San  Francisco,  wealthy  or 
otherwise,  declare  for  and  maintain  a  society,  a  city,  a 
state  of  progressive  civilization  and  economic  development 
along  the  lines  of  honesty  and  morality,  and  there  will  be 
plenty  of  prosperity  for  all. 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          469 

The  manufactures  of  Chicago  amounted  to  $1,281,- 
313,000  in  1909.  When  San  Francisco  manufactures  twice 
as  much  there  will  be  around  the  Bay  six  millions  of  people ; 
when  four  times  as  much — a  matter  easy  enough  of  accom- 
plishment for  the  right  men  working  in  the  right  way — 
there  will  be  a  population  of  twenty  millions. 

There  are  here  at  our  door  and  in  our  midst  to-day  as 
I  write,  some  thousands  of  working-men,  American 
mechanics,  respectable  and  efficient,  who  came  here  to 
work,  more  especially  on  the  exposition  grounds,  but  who 
are  held  up  and  prevented  by  the  labor  leaders.  We  work 
to  encourage  immigration,  advertise  and  organize  societies 
for  that  purpose,  and  then  submit  to  an  outrage  like  this 
without  a  word  of  protest,  certain  newspapers  even  taking 
sides  with  the  spoilers  of  our  city. 

I  have  seen  within  the  week  of  this  writing,  sober, 
manly,  intelligent  and  able  American  working-men  begging 
on  the  streets,  while  behind  the  labor  monopoly  were  mil- 
lions worth  of  public  work  to  be  done,  held  for  the  proteges 
of  unionism  at  the  modest  wage  of  from  three  to  seven 
dollars  a  day. 

One-third  of  those  who  live  by  labor,  fed  and  fattened 
on  a  wage  of  three  to  seven  dollars  a  day,  and  the  two- 
thirds  who  do  not  pay  tribute  to  the  labor  lords  thrust 
aside  to  shift  as  they  may. 

What  then  will  the  labor  monopoly  do,  what  will  the 
business  men  of  San  Francisco  do  when  the  Panama  steer- 
age traffic  places,  as  it  now  promises,  thirty  millions  of  im- 
migrants from  the  south  of  Europe  on  the  Pacific  coast 
where  are  now  but  three  millions  of  people? 

San  Franciscans  may  now,  if  they  choose,  lay  the  foun- 
dations of  a  city  the  peer  of  any  in  ancient  or  modern  times, 
or  they  may  let  slip  the  opportunity  and  sink  into  the  in- 
significance that  selfishness,  cowardice,  and  cupidity  are 
sure  to  accomplish. 

It  is  true  that  labor  can  gain  no  concession  from  capital 
16 


470  RETROSPECTION 

except  by  force,  but  there  are  better  ways  of  applying 
force  than  that  employed  by  the  labor  monopolists. 

As  it  stands  now,  every  enforced  concession  gained  by 
the  labor  leaders  reacts  on  the  working-man.  Wages  are 
advanced,  but  the  cost  of  living  is  advanced  proportionately 
more.  The  labor-day  is  shortened,  which  is  only  a  subter- 
fuge for  a  further  advance  of  wages  while  curtailing  the 
earning  efficiency  of  the  laborer. 

It  is  not  labor  that  is  the  slave  of  wealth,  but  the  idle 
rich.  You  cannot  enslave  labor,  though  you  may  crush 
the  laborer.  The  man  of  idleness  and  luxury  is  caught  in 
the  toils  of  his  own  wealth,  while  labor  is  lord-dominator 
of  all,  and  the  laborer  is  its  minister. 

Sentiment  is  a  fine  thing,  particularly  when  there  is 
money  in  it.  Having  annoyed  the  employer  and  bled  the 
laborer  to  the  fullest  extent,  some  of  the  federation  frater- 
nity conceived  the  happy  idea  of  organizing  tramps;  but 
as  these  noblemen  in  their  peregrinations  seemed  to  pre- 
fer their  scraps  of  bread  without  work,  the  project  was 
abandoned. 

It  is  not  possible  to  find  on  any  continent  or  island  a 
place  where  are  united  more  or  greater  advantages  for 
manufacturing  than  may  be  seen  around  San  Francisco 
bay. 

It  is  not  possible  to  find  a  region  on  earth  more  need- 
ful of  the  products  of  manufactures  than  that  encircling 
the  Pacific  Ocean. 

First  as  to  raw  material,  then  we  will  consider  the  site, 
and  finally  look  around  for  a  market. 

The  shores  of  the  Pacific  offer  an  abundance  of  every- 
thing the  world  contains,  metals,  minerals,  and  vegetable 
products,  nowhere  found  all  in  one  place,  but  which  may 
be  brought  to  a  common  industrial  centre  by  ocean  trans- 
portation at  small  cost. 

An  industrial  centre  is  essential  to  the  fullest  success. 
"We  cannot  go  south  to  engage  m  the  cocoa  and  caoutchouc 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          471 

industry,  or  north  to  frame  battle-ships-,  we  cannot  well 
operate  planing-mills  in  Yucatan,  or  foundries  in  Alaska, 
or  sugar-refineries  on  the  Hawaiian  islands. 

It  is  well  understood  that  the  white  man  cannot  live 
and  work  permanently  in  the  tropics,  that  the  redundant 
wealth  of  lands  under  the  equator  must  be  controlled  and 
developed  from  cooler  latitudes  but  with  dark-skinned 
labor;  that  all  the  world  outside  of  Europe  is  destined  to 
be  under  the  economic  dominion  of  English-speaking  and 
Russian-speaking  peoples. 

During  the  last  two  decades  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
as  Benjamin  Kidd  has  shown,  nearly  five  millions  of  square 
miles  of  the  tropical  regions  of  the  world,  equal  in  area 
to  the  whole  of  Europe,  were  brought  under  the  control  of 
continental  Europe  in  the  name  of  colonial  expansion. 

The  products  of  the  temperate  zone  our  home  lands  will 
supply.  We  can  have  our  farms  in  the  tropics  and  our 
factories  at  San  Francisco ;  our  coffee  farms  in  Costa  Rica, 
our  tea  and  cotton  plantations  in  China,  our  mines  and  ore 
reduction  works  all  around  the  ocean,  but  the  masters  of 
industry  will  remain  at  San  Francisco  bay. 

As  to  the  site,  and  the  natural  and  artificial  advantages 
as  a  world-centre  of  industry,  it  is  impossible  to  over 
estimate  them.  Power  unlimited  in  the  form  of  oil  and 
electricity  are  at  hand,  and  all  the  other  natural  require- 
ments. The  bay  of  San  Francisco  has  a  shore  line  capable 
of  accommodating  the  work  of  the  world,  where  docks, 
wharves,  and  warehouses  may  be  extended  ad  libitum,  and 
where  ocean  vessels  and  railways  may  meet. 

The  climate,  influenced  by  the  proximity  of  the  ocean,  is 
equable,  cool  in  summer  and  warm  in  winter,  temperature 
seldom  rising  ten  degrees  above  or  falling  ten  degrees 
below  70°  the  year  round;  no  freezing  cold  nor  suffocating 
heat,  so  that  the  laborer  may  comfortably  and  healthily 
devote  as  many  hours  out  of  the  twenty-four  to  work  as 
he  chooses.  The  air  is  pure,  always  bringing  in  moisture 
from  the  ocean,  driving  away  disease,  and  tincturing  with 


472  RETROSPECTION 

health  and  strength  the  blood  of  the  operative.  On  the 
denuded  hills  there  is  no  decaying  vegetation  to  make 
malaria.  Food  is  plentiful  and  cheap;  there  are  always 
meat,  vegetables,  fish,  and  fruit  in  abundance.  Prices  may 
be  advanced  sometimes  temporarily  from  fictitious  causes, 
but  they  soon  return  to  normal. 

Lift  the  icy  covering  of  Alaska,  and  in  that  vast  labora- 
tory of  nature,  where  the  three  great  continental  ranges 
of  mountains  meet  and  mingle,  we  find  natural  wealth 
enough  of  our  own  to  keep  running  our  factories  for  a 
thousand  years. 

There  is  also  at  hand  plenty  of  capital;  what  is  just 
now  lacking,  but  will  not  be  so  for  long,  are  men  of  intel- 
ligence and  energy  absolutely  fearless. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  marketing  of  our  products. 
Right  at  hand,  around  the  Pacific,  mainlands  and  islands, 
are  shore  lines  equal  to  100,000  miles  in  length,  back  of 
which  are  undeveloped  countries  of  vast  extent,  virgin 
lands  teeming  with  every  form  of  nature 's  wealth,  coal,  iron 
and  oil,  mountains  of  metal,  forests  of  finest  timber  and 
precious  woods,  broad  rivers  inviting  to  inland  traffic  and 
wide  fertile  plains  of  every  soil  and  climate. 

Here  on  this  largest  of  oceans,  almost  within  touch, 
all  of  it  within  a  few  days'  sail,  we  have  half  the  world 
for  a  customer,  while  we  have  only  to  pass  through  the 
Panama  canal  to  reach  the  other  half.  Here  are  we  at  the 
natural  and  commercial  centre  of  this  new  world  of  eco- 
nomic development, — that  is  if  we  choose  to  make  of  it  a 
centre, — in  the  midst  of  peoples  many  of  them  half-civil- 
ized but  all  rapidly  awakening,  and  all  ready  to  adopt  our 
customs  and  use  our  products.  As  the  centuries  come  and 
go  these  Pacific  shores  will  become  radiant  with  cities  and 
countries  of  the  highest  civilization,  higher  than  any  the 
world  has  yet  imagined. 

On  the  other  side  of  us,  east  and  south  and  north,  are 
lines  of  railways  connecting  with  every  part  of  the  two 
Americas, 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          473 

"Would  you  like  to  see  this  San  Francisco  a  hundred  or 
two  hundred  years  hence,  when  law  and  justice  are  one,  and 
women  are  sensible  and  men  honest,  and  labor  and  capital 
are  reconciled,  and  high  crime  is  out  of  fashion,  and  dema- 
gogues are  dead,  and  graft  and  greed  forgotten,  then  shut 
your  eyes  and  open  your  imagination. 

A  bay  sixty  miles  long  and  six  miles  wide,  with  bluff 
and  shallow  shores  curving  around  flats  and  headlands. 
Through  high  hills  which  serve  as  the  throne-room  of  an 
imperial  city  a  strait  appears,  draining  the  Sierra  foot- 
hills and  five  hundred  miles  of  valley  land,  the  water  pass- 
ing on  and  out  through  the  Bay  and  through  the  Golden 
Gate.  Along  all  this  winding  water-front  are  ten  thou- 
sand factories  plying  their  craft,  while  ocean  vessels  and 
continental  traffic  meet  and  minister  to  them,  carrying 
away  their  product  and  distributing  it  throughout  the 
world. 

Upon  the  hills  back  of  this  border  of  smoke-enveloped 
industry,  under  a  sky  of  purple  haze,  in  the  bracing  air  of 
ocean  are  miles  upon  miles  of  happy  homes,  palaces,  cot- 
tages, and  bungalows  to  suit  all  tastes  and  classes,  views  of 
surpassing  beauty  to  delight  the  eye,  and  all  one  city, 
economic  mistress  of  the  world;  all  made  by  the  working- 
man  and  stocked  by  capital. 

This,  or  a  commonplace  city  of  commonplace  people, 
whose  minds  are  warped  by  fancied  self-interests  and  fear, 
with  none  too  keen  a  sense  of  morality  or  integrity,  and  all 
clouded  by  the  same  industrial  conflict  now  become  eternal. 

Just  as  the  present  and  future  generations  shall  elect. 
But  let  it  be  plainly  understood,  and  it  requires  no  prophet 
to  tell  the  outcome  of  it,  nothing  great  or  important  will 
ever  be  accomplished  on  this  bay  until  labor  is  free  and 
the  wage  reasonable. 

San  Francisco  proper  comprises,  or  should  comprise, 
all  the  lands  fronting  on  San  Francisco  bay  and  the  strait 
of  Carquinez,  some  300  miles  of  shore  line,  including  coves 
and  indentations,  with  all  the  towns  and  cities  thereon, 


474  RETROSPECTION 

present  and  in  the  future,  the  population  numbering  any- 
where from  ten  to  twenty  millions.  All  to  come  after  the 
Panama  canal, — some  time  after. 

Neither  does  one  have  to  assume  the  role  of  prophet  to 
foretell  to  some  extent  the  destiny  of  the  countries  around 
the  Pacific.  Evolution  is  as  fixed  a  quantity  as  heat  or 
substance.  It  has  always  been  paramount  in  progress  and 
always  will  be.  Evolution  is  progress.  We  have  only  to 
notice  what  has  been,  and  the  trend  of  events,  to  determine 
the  future  in  regard  to  our  western  development. 

Progress  has  always  been  from  east  to  west,  and  now  the 
last  of  the  west  looms  before  us  as  the  largest  of  oceans  with 
the  richest  of  shores.  From  under  the  snows  of  Alaska  to 
the  torrid  zone  of  Panama,  and  on  the  other  sides  the  same, 
are  uncovered  riches  as  much  superior  to  the  once  natural 
wealth  around  the  Atlantic  as  the  Pacific  is  superior  to  the 
Atlantic  in  dimensions. 

The  vast  natural  wealth  of  these  Pacific  countries  is 
now  to  be  brought  to  light  and  developed,  and  in  this 
work  the  Panama  canal  will  assist.  All  the  world  will  com- 
pete. There  is  before  us  a  great  industrial  conflict  in  which 
all  the  nations  will  take  part. 

The  victors  in  the  warfare  will  be  and  remain  the 
economic  rulers  of  the  earth  beside  whom  the  political 
rulers  will  be  as  pygmies. 

The  advantage  of  a  ship  canal,  or  of  ship  canals,  for 
there  will  be  eventually  not  one  or  two,  but  ten,  of  the  in- 
fluence upon  America,  upon  every  seaboard  of  the  Pacific, 
upon  the  world,  upon  human  enlightenment  and  advance- 
ment, the  wildest  dreams  of  the  enthusiast  cannot  en- 
compass. 

Imagine  the  lands  bordering  on  the  Pacific  inhabited 
by  peoples  equal  to  those  who  now  live  upon  the  Atlantic, 
having  genius  equal  to  those  who  once  occupied  the 
Mediterranean,  with  some  thousands  of  years  of  intellec- 
tual culture  and  refinement  added,  people  like  those  on  the 
western  side  of  Europe  from  Scandinavia  to  Brittany,  and 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          475 

on  the  eastern  side  of  America  from  Maine  to  Florida, 
races  destined  in  due  time  to  dominate  the  world. 

Imagine  such  as  these  all  around  this  greatest  of  oceans, 
in  place  of  the  heathenish  hordes  of  Asia  and  the  mongrel 
breeds  of  Spanish-America;  picture  here  scores  of  cities 
the  equal  of  Athens,  Alexandria,  and  Rome  in  the  days  of 
their  glory,  the  equal  of  London,  Paris,  and  New  York  as 
they  are  now  and  will  be,  a  Philadelphia  in  place  of  Peking 
and  a  Boston  where  Valparaiso  stands,  and  all  around  mil- 
lions of  happy  homes  where  virtue  dwells  and  charity  and 
humanity  hold  sway,  and  a  faint  realization  of  the  future 
greatness  of  the  Pacific  is  begun. 

In  the  more  immediate  future  much  is  expected  from 
the  Panama  canal.  By  those  even  who  have  no  definite 
ideas  how  the  possibilities  thence  arising  are  to  be  utilized, 
immediate  benefits  are  expected.  The  volume  of  business 
will  increase,  profits  will  be  larger,  money  plentiful,  with 
an  easy  flow  into  somewhat  empty  coffers.  Real  estate  will 
advance,  freights  everywhere  will  be  lower,  and  the  back- 
bone of  the  great  overland  railway  monopolies  will  be 
broken. 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  some  of  these  dreamers  will  be 
disappointed.  For  so  thought  California  on  the  eve  of 
the  completion  of  the  first  overland  railway.  A  great 
industrial  millennium  was  at  hand. 

Business  was  laid  out  on  a  broader  scale  and  real  prop- 
erty values  advanced  enormously.  The  legitimate  profits 
of  half  a  dozen  decades  were  discounted.  From  Seattle 
to  San  Diego  the  fortune  of  every  man  was  as  good  as 
made.  Then  came  the  first  engine  to  San  Francisco,  snort- 
ing down  Market  street,  bedecked  with  flags,  flowers,  and 
furbelows.  Hats  went  up  amid  loud  cheers  and  congratu- 
lations. 

After  that  the  deluge.  Everybody  was  in  debt  to  every- 
body and  all  wanted  their  money.  Values  fell.  Money 
tightened.  Panic  ensued.  Old-established  business  firms 


476  RETROSPECTION . 

went  to  the  wall,  and  thousands  of  merchants  and  manu- 
facturers were  ruined. 

In  regard  to  California  and  the  influence  of  the  canal, 
that  will  be  as  the  Californians  shall  determine.  Aside 
from  its  effect  on  overland  freight  it  will  be  of  little  benefit 
to  San  Francisco  as  business  is  now  running.  It  will 
prove  beneficial  in  so  far  as  it  stimulates  manufactures  and 
no  farther.  As  we  will  not  then  be  situated  on  the  main 
line  of  travel  between  the  ancient  east  and  the  modern  west, 
but  rather  on  one  side  of  it,  vessels  passing  through  the 
canal  will  scarcely  come  to  us  except  for  some  purpose. 
They  will  come  only  as  they  have  something  to  come  for, 
something  to  bring  or  take  away. 

Without  manufactures  our  commerce  will  amount  to  but 
little,  being  but  the  carrying  away  of  our  farm  products, 
which  will  be  done  largely  in  tramp  steamers  subsidized  by 
the  governments  for  whose  benefit  we  have  dug  the  canal. 
The  railways,  assisted  by  their  tools  in  Congress,  will 
capture  and  control  the  canal  if  they  can. 

Not  alone  San  Francisco  aspires  to  greatness  by  reason 
of  the  great  ditch.  There  is  scarcely  a  seaport  on  the 
Pacific,  not  to  mention  those  of  other  oceans,  and  on  in- 
land lakes  and  rivers,  that  does  not  fancy  itself  the  gate- 
way to  something  which  when  the  waterway  is  finished  will 
open  to  it  wealth  and  prosperity. 

Admiral  Kimotsuki  expects  the  canal  to  make  Japan 
the  radiating  centre  of  the  world's  shipping  trade.  All 
admirals  everywhere,  and  all  who  are  not  admirals,  expect 
something  from  the  canal.  Let  us  hope  that  none  of  them 
will  be  disappointed ;  yet  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  the  canal 
will  bring  wealth  to  any  who  will  not  reach  out  a  hand  for 
it.  All  things  come  to  him  who  waits, — except  the  Panama 
canal. 

Of  a  truth  we  may  be  sure  of  this,  that  unless  the 
people  of  the  United  States  do  something  more  than  dig 
the  canal  and  place  guns  over  it,  the  great  work  will  accrue 
more  to  the  benefit  of  Japan  and  China,  of  England  and 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          477 

Germany,  than  to  any  of  the  seaports  of  the  United  States, 
whether  on  the  Pacific  or  on  the  Atlantic. 

As  matters  stand  now,  New  York  will  profit  most  of  any 
city  by  the  canal.  Liverpool,  Hamburg,  and  Havre  will 
also  come  in  for  a  share.  San  Francisco  will  profit  the 
least  of  any,  having  the  least  of  any  to  sell;  if  there  is  not 
some  radical  change  in  industrial  conditions  the  canal  will 
prove  a  disadvantage  rather  than  a  benefit  to  our  people. 

Japan  will  profit  by  the  canal,  also  China  if  she  re- 
mains long  enough  awake.  With  her  hundred  cotton  and 
paper  mills,  representing  forty  millions  of  capital,  Japan 
is  in  a  fair  way  to  become  prominent  in  manufacturing  as 
well  as  in  carrying. 

Germany  is  exploiting  the  world  for  fresh  fields  of 
enterprise,  has  a  foothold  in  Central  and  South  America, 
and  is  difficult  to  dislodge,  particularly  when  she  can  com- 
mand labor  for  half  the  price  we  pay. 

England  is  also  largely  interested  in  Latin  America, 
with  railroads  in  the  Argentine  and  Brazil  and  water- 
works in  Buenos  Aires  and  elsewhere. 

Even  the  heathen  rage  about  it.  Said  the  eminent 
Asiatic  Tong  King  Chong  before  the  Commonwealth  club, 
"There  is  no  room  for  discussion  as  to  the  great  value 
which  a  free,  unrestricted  market  in  China  is  to  the  United 
States.  And  yet  the  United  States  is  losing  fast  and  at 
an  alarming  rate  its  commercial  standing  in  China.  China 
is  rapidly  ceasing  to  be  a  market  place  for  American  prod- 
ucts. It  is  unbelievable  that  the  United  States  should  per- 
mit this  rich,  this  glorious  opportunity  to  slip  from  its 
grasp. ' ' 

Evidently  Mr.  Tong  King  Chong  had  not  read  the  life 
of  Dennis  Kearney  and  the  Irish  conquest  of  the  United 
States. 

Not  many  decades  ago  Great  Britain  set  the  manufac- 
turing pace  for  the  world.  She  does  so  no  longer,  France 
and  Germany  came  forward;  then  the  United  States  out- 
stripped them  all.  Now  Japan  and  China  are  putting  in 


478  RETROSPECTION 

an  appearance,  and  Europe  and  America,  following  an 
insane  policy  of  self-destruction,  are  likely  to  be  left 
behind. 

It  is  not  that  good  business  does  not  recognize  manu- 
factures as  the  chief  factor  in  progress,  but  because  good 
business  lacks  the  nerve  to  assume  command  and  compel 
conditions.  Not  long  since  a  large  and  enthusiastic  meet- 
ing was  organized  and  officered  in  San  Francisco  by  promi- 
nent men  for  the  promotion  of  manufactures.  Various 
phases  of  the  subject  were  eloquently  discussed,  but  never 
a  word  about  labor — a  feast  of  industrialism  with  only 
husks  to  eat. 

It  is  useless  to  arouse  ourselves  now  and  then  from 
slumber  to  rebuild  a  burnt  city  or  hold  a  great  fair,  to  cry 
boost!  boost!  and  then  fall  asleep  again.  It  is  useless 
improvising  a  grand  organization  for  the  promotion  of 
manufactures  without  a  word  about  the  workers  who  are 
to  keep  those  factories  running. 

Any  one  can  see  that  unless  we  ourselves  make  things 
to  sell,  and  then  go  out  and  sell  them,  there  is  little  busi- 
ness for  us  in  San  Francisco,  and  the  Panama  canal  will 
forever  be  doing  us  more  harm  than  good. 

And  yet  more  quickly  than  to  us  will  come  home  to 
others  these  facts,  and  they  will  say,  "If  we  are  not 
allowed  to  manage  our  affairs  to  suit  ourselves  in  San 
Francisco,  we  will  go  where  we  can  do  so." 

It  is  no  easy  task,  for  in  entering  this  field  to  make  and 
sell  we  encounter  competition  with  all  the  world.  We 
come  in  contact  at  once  with  money,  machinery,  experienced 
managers,  and  skilled  labor,  all  at  a  lower  rate,  money  and 
men,  than  we  are  able  or  willing  to  supply,  than  the  leaders 
of  labor  will  permit  us  to  supply. 

Then  we  must  give  it  up,  for  we  are  scarcely  childish 
enough  to  suppose  that  we  can  pay  operatives  two  or  three 
times  as  much  as  others  pay  and  successfully  compete. 

Will  some  one  tell  us  the  nature  of  the  windfall,  labor 
conditions  remaining  the  same,  that  San  Francisco  may 


METROPOLITAN  SAN  FRANCISCO  479 

expect  on  the  completion  of  the  Panama  canal?  In  the 
absence  of  manufactures  for  export,  and  with  no  increase 
in  agricultural  products,  commerce  will  fall  off  rather  than 
increase,  as  Asiatic,  east  American,  and  European  traffic 
will  be  diverted  from  us  to  equatorial  or  canal  routes. 

Wherefore  is  it  wiser  in  us  to  look  the  facts  squarely  in 
the  face  and  follow  them  to  their  logical  conclusions,  meet- 
ing the  issues  like  men,  or  to  continue  to  cry  aloud  our 
merits,  what  we  have  done  and  are  going  to  do,  while  do- 
ing nothing. 

Times  are  dull  enough  here  now,  acres  of  the  burnt 
district  still  bare,  acres  of  houses  to  rent,  workmen  idle, 
and  labor  leaders  holding  the  town.  To  avert  still  harder 
times  the  Chinese  expulsion  laws  must  be  annulled,  the 
labor  leaders  deposed,  and  labor  made  free. 

Our  business  men  are  keenly  alive  to  the  situation  but 
they  seem  powerless  to  act.  They  can  raise  ten  or  twenty 
millions  for  a  world's  fair,  but  they  cannot  start  up  a 
non-union  brick-yard  or  put  down  the  monopoly  of  lumber. 

This  is  why  San  Francisco  remains  so  quiet,  the  city  is 
being  strangled  by  labor  leaders  who  enslave  the  laborers 
and  then  dictate  to  employers  and  employed  alike.  And 
no  one  dares  speak  of  it.  The  press,  politicians,  and  even 
the  business  man  are  all  equally  silent;  all  are  fearful  of 
loss  of  patronage.  Capital,  brave  enough  to  punish  petty 
offenses,  cringes  before  rich  criminals  and  the  manipula- 
tors of  labor. 

Said  an  intelligent  shipmaster  the  other  day  to  a  banker 
who  loves  to  pose  as  a  public-spirited  friend  of  progress 
and  promoter  of  the  city's  interests:  "Do  you  know  you 
are  holding  back  this  town,  holding  it  back  a  hundred 
years  by  permitting  labor  leaders  to  run  it,  and  to  run 
you.  Why,  if  one  of  my  ships  requires  repairs  of  only  a 
thousand  dollars  it  pays  to  send  it  to  Seattle." 

It  is  to  be  hoped  at  least  that  the  managers  of  the  fair 
will  not  allow  visitors  and  exhibitors  to  be  held  up  by 
labor-leaders,  or  imposed  upon  by  any  one.  Invited  hither 


480  RETROSPECTION 

by  the  city,  the  state,  the  United  States,  eternal  disgrace 
would  be  ours  did  we  allow  any  imposition  to  befall. 

Industries  rest  on  a  false  foundation  when  wages  are 
forced  up  instead  of  being  left  to  economic  laws  sure  to 
govern  in  the  end.  No  matter  what  wage  the  laborer  is 
paid,  consumption  and  demand  alone  determine  the  value 
of  the  product.  If  the  article  produced  is  good  and  cheap, 
better  and  cheaper  than  similar  products  from  other  manu- 
facturers, then  the  demand  will  bring  the  increase  and 
more  labor  is  required.  If  the  contrary  prevails,  the  de- 
mand ceases  and  the  laborer  loses  employment. 

This  does  not  imply  an  advance  in  the  price  of  labor, 
for  the  increased  price  of  labor,  which  must  necessarily 
increase  the  cost  of  the  article  manufactured,  may  rule  it 
out  of  the  market  and  leave  the  field  to  competitors,  to  the 
detriment  alike  of  capital  and  labor. 

San  Francisco  is  not  a  free  city.  It  is  held  in  a  vise 
by  the  manipulators  of  labor,  who  are  feared  by  good 
business,  which  seems  to  distrust  honesty  more  than  ras- 
cality, and  the  rule  of  decency  and  morality  more  than  the 
rule  of  those  from  whom  can  be  obtained  the  city's  rights 
and  privileges  at  small  cost  and  immunity  from  the  effects 
of  any  illegalities. 

Wages  and  living  in  the  United  States  are  twice  as  high 
as  in  Europe,  and  four  times  as  high  as  in  Asia ;  how  then 
are  we  to  compete  for  the  traffic  of  the  world  but  by  the 
modification  of  uneconomic  and  ruinous  ideas.  The  laws 
of  progress  cannot  be  relegated  to  fictitious  realms  and 
forced  for  any  considerable  length  of  time  to  remain  there. 
Manufactures  have  always  marched  hand  in  hand  with 
civilization,  from  east  to  west,  from  the  old  half  civiliza- 
tion of  Cathay  and  India  overland  to  the  Mediterranean, 
to  western  Europe,  to  America,  and  back  to  Nippon  and 
the  new  Cathay ;  manufactures  are  civilization. 

We  used  to  send  our  cotton  to  England  to  be  made  into 
cloth  for  us;  then  New  England  did  the  work,  and  later 
Texas.  San  Francisco  bay,  or  San  Diego,  would  naturally 


METROPOLITAN   SAN   FRANCISCO          481 

have  been  the  present  cotton  centre,  but  the  industry  and 
with  it  the  raw  material  passed  California  by,  and  jumped 
to  Japan,  because  we  lacked  the  enterprise  to  secure  it, 
because  we  avoid  as  a  pestilence  Asiatic  operatives,  because 
we  live  and  serve  under  the  lords  of  labor,  who  drive  from 
our  door  even  European  labor,  white  working-men  who 
have  come  from  afar  at  our  instigation  to  work. 

Formerly  we  obtained  cloths,  carpets,  glass  and  earthen 
ware,  fine  cutlery  and  hardware  from  England,  silk  and 
wines  from  France,  and  a  hundred  other  things  which 
later  eastern  America  made,  but  jumping  over  the  Pacific 
coast  these  industries  go  to  Asia  because  we  lack  the  cour- 
age to  defy  the  labor  leaders  and  politicians  and  obtain  from 
the  proper  source  the  best  labor  material  the  world  affords, 
and  so  supply  the  world  with  our  manufactured  products. 

The  export  trade  of  the  United  States  is  nearly  a  billion 
of  dollars.  That  should  be  the  export  trade  of  San  Fran- 
cisco alone  when  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  miles  of  Pacific 
seaboard  are  lined  with  stately  cities  like  Baltimore  and 
Boston,  with  now  and  then  a  New  York,  a  London,  and  a 
Paris.  Indiana  is  now  the  centre  of  population  in  the 
United  States;  then  it  will  be  Colorado  or  Utah,  or  even 
Nevada,  perhaps,  for  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  will  support 
a  mighty  people. 

England  has  her  colonies  for  customers ;  she  makes  good 
cloth  and  steel,  and  stands  first  in  banking  and  shipping; 
she  has  no  continent  of  her  own  to  develop,  but  she  lends 
on  mortgage  to  those  who  have  and  makes  money. 

Germany's  banking  and  shipping  experiences  are  new, 
but  drummers  and  salesmen  are  not;  in  commerce  she  is 
aggressive  and  makes  money  by  studying  the  requirements 
of  her  customers. 

The  French  are  among  the  most  prospered  of  European 
nations  because  they  are  best  in  certain  manufactures, — 
not  the  cheapest  but  the  best  in  handicraft  and  texture. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  throughout  the  United 


482  RETROSPECTION 

States  in  almost  every  instance  cities  where  labor  is  free 
are  prosperous,  while  places  in  which  labor  is  restrained 
are  not  prosperous. 

Call  it  the  open  or  closed  shop,  the  tyranny  of  labor, 
the  stifling  effects  of  economic  extortion  or  what  you  will, 
the  fact  remains  that  the  city  of  free  labor  prospers  while 
the  city  of  enslaved  labor  does  not.  The  most  reliable 
statisticians  place  the  loss  to  San  Francisco  thus  far  of  the 
labor  tyranny  at  one  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  They 
establish  further,  through  building  operations  for  1910,  as 
compared  with  those  of  1909,  the  heavy  hand  that  union- 
ism lays  upon  the  prosperity  of  a  city.  The  free  city  of 
Detroit  had  an  increase  of  22  per  cent.;  the  free  city  of 
Cleveland  15  per  cent.;  the  enslaved  city  of  Buffalo  a  de- 
crease of  7  per  cent.,  and  Milwaukee,  with  a  socialist  mayor, 
a  decrease  of  15  per  cent.  The  free  city  of  Los  Angeles 
had  an  increase  of  64  per  cent,  and  Portland,  Oregon,  of 
61  per  cent.  The  enslaved  city  of  San  Francisco  had  a  de- 
crease of  19  per  cent,  and  St.  Louis  a  decrease  of  17  per 
cent.  The  free  city  of  Duluth  had  an  increase  of  262  per 
cent,  and  Atlanta,  Georgia,  of  33  per  cent.  Most  of  the 
large  cities  show  decreases,  including  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, Pittsburgh,  and  Washington.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  following  places,  which  are  more  or  less  free,  show  in- 
creases: Baltimore,  Indianapolis,  Memphis,  Hartford, 
Toledo,  Louisville,  and  Richmond. 

When  we  consider  the  attendant  economic  forces  newly 
set  to  work  we  no  longer  marvel  over  the  multiplication 
of  wealth.  Railroad  freight  and  passenger  traffic  double 
every  ten  years.  Bank  deposits,  under  free  labor  condi- 
tions, double  every  six  years.  The  yield  of  iron  and  coal 
and  gold  is  greater  than  ever.  All  the  grand  economic 
energy  in  us  and  in  our  environment  may  be  at  once 
liberated  by  liberating  labor.  All  depends  upon  the  in- 
dustrial efficiency  of  the  men  of  San  Francisco  bay. 

The  talk  no  longer  is  of  our  market  in  China,  our  mar- 
ket in  India,  our  market  in  Europe.  Henceforth  all  the 


METROPOLITAN    SAN   FRANCISCO          483 

world  is  market  to  every  man.  In  the  creation,  in  the 
production,  individualism  comes  to  the  front.  It  is  what  each 
individual  himself  can  do  to  surpass  the  work  of  others  that 
is  to  determine  the  supremacy.  But  though  individuals 
can  manufacture,  every  individual  at  the  same  time  can- 
not go  to  market.  This  will  have  to  be  done  to  a  greater  or 
less  extent  by  associations. 

One  man  can  save  the  city,  as  one  man  saved  the  state, 
and  that  man  will  shortly  appear  and  act,  as  Hiram  John- 
son appeared  and  acted,  a  man  capable,  determined,  a  man 
absolutely  honest  and  unafraid.  There  is  no  higher  gift, 
there  can  be  no  higher  praise. 

Hiram  Johnson  did  not  stop  to  choose  soft  words  and 
euphemistic  phrases  in  speaking  of  the  Southern  Pacific 
people.  He  said,  "I  will  drive  them  out  of  politics,"  and 
he  did.  He  did  not  stop  to  placate  capital  or  pacify  labor ; 
he  said,  "the  people  shall  rule,"  and  for  the  first  time 
since  the  railway  tyranny  closed  the  Interregnum  follow- 
ing the  vigilance  regime,  the  people  of  the  state  of  Cali- 
fornia do  now  rule.  Is  there  not  one  man  in  all  this  city 
able,  honest,  and  with  sufficient  backbone  and  courage  to 
stand  up  before  the  cowardice  of  capital  and  the  tyranny  of 
labor  and  say  "this  city  shall  be  free,"  and  so  establish  it? 
Heney,  Sullivan,  and  Phelan  did  noble  work  until  defeated 
by  the  unholy  alliance  of  labor  and  capital  at  the  polls;  is 
there  then  no  other  to  come  forward  at  this  juncture  ? 

What  made  London  Manchester  and  Liverpool;  what 
made  New  York  Boston  and  Chicago?  Commerce  is  well 
enough  in  its  way,  and  should  attend  manufactures,  but 
commerce  is  fleeting  while  manufactures  are  enduring. 

It  is  a  critical  moment,  this  in  which  we  live;  it  is  the 
turning  point  of  our  destiny.  The  potentialities  are  in- 
calculable, but  failure  now  is  failure  forever.  Not  that 
all  would  be  lost,  but  much  of  what  would  be  lost  could 
never  be  regained. 

The  future  is  bright;  I  cannot  otherwise  regard  it.  A 
clean  city,  purged  by  fire  and  reform,  is  rising  upon  the 


484  RETROSPECTION 

debris  of  the  past  in  such  proportions  of  beauty  and  utility 
as  to  make  it  second  to  no  other  in  America.  And  brightest 
of  all  is  the  vision  of  moral  grandeur  to  which  she  may 
aspire  when  work  like  that  of  the  reformers,  once  so 
unique  and  original,  shall  become  common  occurrence.  Yet 
San  Francisco  may  write  this  down  in  her  book.  She  may 
buy  and  build,  acquire  railways  and  water  works,  lay  out 
civic  centres  by  the  score  and  hold  world's  fairs  by  the 
dozen,  taxing  property  up  to  its  full  face  value  for  the 
means  wherewithal  to  pay,  but  she  never  will  reach  her  full 
measure  of  prosperity  under  present  labor  conditions. 

The  slumbering  civilizations  of  the  Pacific  are  awaken- 
ing. China  has  awakened.  Europe  already  knows  it,  and 
English  French  and  German  flags  fly  thick  along  her 
coast,  with  now  and  then  a  solitary  stars  and  stripes. 
Doubtless  the  United  States  will  awaken  after  a  three 
thousand  years'  sleep,  rescind  the  feudalistic  expulsion 
laws  and  open  equitable  intercourse  with  China. 

Already  Europeans  are  active  there  in  exploiting 
mines  and  developing  agriculture  and  manufactures,  in 
building  houses,  railroads,  and  bridges,  in  setting  up  cotton 
and  woolen  mills,  telegraphs  and  telephones,  oil  gas  and 
iron  works,  and  in  transforming  these  ancients  into  pro- 
gressives of  the  latest  civilization.  Even  San  Francisco 
may  awaken  in  time,  when  all  the  fairs  and  civic  centres 
are  finished  and  paid  for;  if  not  let  her  sleep  on  forever 
the  blissful  sleep  of  ante-auriferous  days. 


CHAPTER   XXV 

PROGRESSIVE  GOVERNMENT 

THE  Progressive  movement,  which  so  rapidly  assumed 
the  form  and  dignity  of  a  political  party,  aims  to 
establish  that  which  is  best  for  the  entire  people,  rich  and 
poor  alike.  It  is  as  far  removed  from  socialism  as  it  is 
from  oligarchy.  It  regards  the  rights  of  the  poor  as  equal 
but  not  superior  to  the  rights  of  the  rich.  It  aims  to 
secure  for  all  who  live  in  this  world  the  best  the  world  can 
give,  protection  from  its  ills,  participation  in  its  pleasures, 
and  security  in  the  enjoyment  of  its  blessings. 

It  is  a  moral  no  less  than  a  political  movement;  it  is 
what  all  political  movements  should  be  but  are  not.  It 
aims  to  establish  even-handed  justice  among  all  men,  to 
secure  to  the  working-man  a  fair  share  of  the  fruits  of  his 
labor,  and  to  the  man  of  money  a  proper  reward  for  eco- 
nomic thrift  and  ability. 

Without  subversion  and  without  constraint  it  would 
cleanse  politics  of  its  criminalities,  society  of  its  shams, 
and  bring  to  the  front  all  that  is  noble  in  man  and  pure 
in  woman. 

The  Progressive  movement  is  in  direct  opposition  to 
the  purpose  of  the  Reactionaries,  who  would  keep  things 
as  they  are,  who  would  leave  bad  enough  alone,  who  would 
grant  privileges  to  a  few  which  are  denied  to  all,  who  would 
grant  the  privileged  few  immunity  from  crimes  for  which 
the  many  must  be  punished,  who  would  secure  to  the  priv- 
ileged few  all  the  natural  and  acquired  wealth  in  the 
world,  leaving  the  rest  of  humanity  to  struggle  on  in  pov- 

485 


486  RETROSPECTION 

erty,  working  for  a  meagre  wage,  and  denied  the  conditions 
tending  to  health,  comfort,  and  happiness. 

Progressive  government  will  regulate  labor  and  capital 
alike.  It  will  prevent  iniquitous  trusts,  monopolies,  and 
combinations  of  capital;  it  will  oppose  the  tyrannies  of 
labor  and  the  use  of  dynamite.  It  will  protect  capital  in 
its  rights,  and  see  that  labor  has  its  proper  wage  and  a  fair 
share  of  the  wealth  it  creates. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  determine  which  of  these  two  forces, 
the  force  for  good  or  the  force  for  evil,  shall  ultimately 
prevail.  Great  is  the  power  of  money,  great  the  power  of 
dynamite  in  the  hands  of  evil-minded  men,  but  greater 
still  is  the  power  of  righteousness,  greatest  of  all  is  the 
power  of  the  people. 

For  while  the  people  live,  while  liberty  and  democracy 
live  these  United  States  shall  never  be  ruled  by  any  coterie 
or  cabal,  whether  of  capital  or  labor. 

While  the  people  live,  while  liberty  and  democracy  live 
no  railway  octopus  shall  usurp  the  government,  no  coterie 
of  capitalists  shall  seize  and  hold  the  national  resources 
of  the  nation,  or  manipulate  or  control  the  economic  or 
monied  interests  of  the  people,  no  Gompers  or  Darrow  shall 
dominate  industry,  no  monopoly  of  money  shall  regulate 
traffic  or  prices  of  products,  no  monopoly  of  labor  shall 
regulate  wages  or  indulge  in  boycotts  and  strikes,  no  dyna- 
miters shall  interfere  with  the  employers  of  labor. 

While  the  people  live,  while  liberty  and  democracy  live 
no  Juggernaut  car  of  justice,  in  the  name  of  law  and  justice, 
while  subverting  law  and  justice,  shall  compel  the  worship 
of  the  people,  or  be  allowed  to  roll  over  them  as  a  crushing 
superstition.  Judges  and  jailers,  legislators  and  presidents 
are  of  the  people,  and  are  elected  by  the  people  not  to 
master  but  to  serve  them. 

There  is  no  power  save  the  power  of  God,  which  is 
superior  to  the  power  of  the  people. 

There  is  no  special  merit  in  wealth ;  there  is  no  special 
merit  in  poverty.  Each  is  a  disease,  as  gluttony  and 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  487 

drunkenness  are  diseases,  as  any  excess  abnormal  in  a  prop- 
erly running  community  is  a  disease.  Inordinate  wealth 
and  extreme  poverty  are  both  conditions  to  be  deplored,  and 
if  possible  remedied.  Both  are  significant  of  something 
wrong.  As  crime  so  often  attends  the  accumulation  of 
great  wealth,  so  poverty  without  sufficient  cause  is  a  crime, 
and  should  be  punished  as  a  crime  rather  than  held  up  for 
sacred  sympathy. 

What  is  the  best  government? 

That  which  produces  the  best  results. 

How  about  our  Anglo-American  republicanism? 

Every  one  must  judge  for  himself.  With  intelligence, 
education,  expansion,  wealth,  power,  and  prestige  the 
political  economist  must  consider  the  workings  of  our  insti- 
tutions and  the  output.  He  must  consider  race  admixtures 
and  transformations,  and  withal  the  decline  of  patriot- 
ism, honesty,  and  public  morality,  the  tendency  to  civic 
debauchery,  and  the  rise  and  rulership  of  graft  and  greed. 
He  must  determine  whence  arises  such  abnormities  as  the 
soul  of  evil  encased  in  forms  of  righteousness;  such  fan- 
tasies of  law  and  justice  as  the  subversion  of  government 
by  classes;  the  seizure  of  natural  resources  by  special  in- 
terests; the  concentration  of  capital  for  criminal  designs 
against  the  people;  the  briberies  for  special  privilege;  the 
purchase  of  place  by  office-seekers  from  senators  to  school- 
teachers; the  domination  of  demagogues  in  relation  to  the 
admission  of  Asiatics;  a  judiciary  transformed  by  office 
into  something  sacred  and  superior  to  those  who  elected 
them,  and  yet  of  soul  so  timid  and  texture  so  frail  as  to  be 
influenced  in  their  decisions,  as  they  themselves  declare, 
by  the  fear  of  losing  office;  the  autocrats  of  economic  in- 
dustry who  regulate  by  dynamite,  intimidation,  and  the 
enslavement  of  labor  the  destinies  of  two  millions  of  work- 
ing-men; together  with  such  conditions  as  enable  four  ex- 
press companies  to  thwart  the  wishes  of  ninety  millions  of 
people  who  want  postal  package  service,  and  scores  of  other 
like  examples. 


488  RETROSPECTION 

We  have  secured  the  inalienable  rights  of  life,  liberty 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  in  the  indulgence  of  certain 
phases  of  which  we  seem  to  gravitate  downward  instead 
of  upward,  raking  the  sewers  for  money,  and  bringing 
forward  as  our  political  associates  ten  millions  of  black 
Africans  and  twenty  millions  of  low-grade  Europeans  to 
whom  we  have  given,  without  consideration  and  without 
recompense,  what  should  be  the  inestimable  privilege  of 
the  franchise,  to  possess  and  enjoy,  they  and  their  respec- 
tive progenies  forever. 

Our  civil  war,  which  was  a  necessity  and  in  one  sense 
a  blessing  was  a  withering  curse  in  other  respects,  as  from 
its  very  blessings  came  the  greatest  curse  that  ever  fell 
upon  a  nation,  the  curse  of  dishonesty  and  demoralization. 
Out  of  success,  out  of  wealth  power  and  prosperity  sprang 
up  the  rank  weeds  of  immorality  and  high  crime. 

European  sympathy  was  mainly  for  the  south,  and  that 
not  from  the  noblest  impulses.  To  a  jealousy  approaching 
hatred  on  the  part  of  Germany  was  added  the  Monroe 
doctrine  as  an  impediment  to  German  autocracy  in  Amer- 
ica. France  made  preparation  beforehand  for  the  dis- 
memberment of  the  United  States  by  establishing  Maxi- 
milian with  French  soldiers  in  Mexico,  ready  to  seize  upon 
any  of  the  advantages  which  were  soon  to  follow.  While 
England  opposed  slavery  the  English  aristocracy  opposed 
democracy  as  fatal  to  their  institutions,  and  the  English 
manufacturers  were  opposed  to  whatever  stopped  the  sup- 
ply of  cotton. 

All  through  the  fierce  struggle  of  '61  to  '65  California 
was  quiet  but  intensely  loyal,  and  in  the  aftermath,  during 
the  reconstruction  period,  none  were  more  indignant  over 
the  base  treatment  of  a  fallen  foe  by  the  political  riff- 
raff of  the  north,  in  Congress  and  out  of  Congress.  Nothing 
in  our  history  more  clearly  shows  the  swift  evolution  of 
high  crime  at  this  juncture,  and  the  depth  of  cowardice 
and  brutality  into  which  we  had  fallen,  than  our  treatment 
of  the  white  men  of  the  south  during  their  attempt  to  rise 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  489 

and  regain  a  footing  in  the  commonwealth.  It  was  a  fall 
from  which  we  were  destined  never  to  rise  the  same.  The 
curse  we  intended  for  others  fell  upon  us,  and  the  effects 
of  it  can  never  be  wholly  removed. 

But  we  will  do  what  we  can ;  we  will  hope  on,  and  never 
cease  our  efforts  for  the  cleansing  of  our  commonwealth 
and  the  betterment  of  the  race. 

It  is  not  always  the  diseased  member  that  dies  first,  it 
may  be  cut  off  or  cured.  The  most  hopeless  condition  for 
a  person  or  a  community  is  while  maintaining  a  fair  outside 
to  harbor  disease  within  without  recognizing  it  or  attempt- 
ing a  cure.  It  was  not  by  any  means  the  American  people 
fallen  into  decadence,  but  cliques  and  evil-minded  individ- 
uals, men  greedy  of  place  and  power  and  money,  women 
greedy  of  display  and  social  supremacy,  that  wrought  the 
greatest  evils. 

Efforts  were  made  to  stem  the  tide,  but  health  wealth 
and  progress  all  became  infected  with  the  disease.  But 
still  the  people  fought  on  until  their  soul's  desire  was 
voiced  by  our  chief  magistrate  at  Washington.  That  turned 
the  tide.  Hope  rose  again  and  they  won.  All  honor  to 
them,  all  shame  to  the  traitors. 

A  great  moral  revolution  has  swept  over  the  Republic 
during  the  last  decade,  beginning  with  Theodore  Roose- 
velt on  the  Atlantic  side,  and  culminating  in  the  campaign 
of  Hiram  Johnson,  which  gave  our  western  coast  a  clean 
start  for  something  worth  living  for. 

It  was  not  two  parties  but  two  civilizations  that  stood 
forth  in  opposition  after  the  civil  war,  the  civilization  of 
retrogression  and  dishonor,  of  individualism  and  greed,  and 
the  civilization  of  progress,  of  altruism,  and  ever  higher 
ideals. 

Washington  delivered  the  people  from  foreign  tyranny ; 
Lincoln  saved  us  from  secession  and  slavery;  Roosevelt  set 
at  work  the  cleansing  of  the  nation  from  moral  leprosy 
which  was  surely  hastening  it  on  to  destruction. 

When  out  of  the  east  came  to  our  west  the  message  of 


490  RETROSPECTION 

salvation  all  was  silence.  No  one  heard  or  heeded,  all 
were  buried  in  self  and  sin.  Then  the  President  himself 
spoke,  and  sent  us  Heney  and  Burns,  who  were  supported 
by  William  H.  Langdon,  and  followed  by  Hiram  Johnson, 
and  we  were  saved. 

See  what  these  men  have  done!  May  their  names  be 
.everlastingly  written  in  the  sky,  Theodore  Roosevelt,  Hiram 
Johnson,  Francis  J.  Heney,  James  D.  Phelan,  Mat  I. 
Sullivan. 

Hiram  Johnson  saved  the  state  as  Francis  J.  Heney  had 
saved  the  city,  and  as  Theodore  Roosevelt  had  saved 
Christendom.  It  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  political 
crusades  in  history,  the  several  campaigns  of  Hiram  John- 
son throughout  the  state  resulting  in  the  complete  steriliza- 
tion of  public  sentiment  in  regard  to  high  crime,  sentiments 
hitherto  saturated  with  the  iniquities  taught  by  the  methods 
and  morals  of  corporate  capital. 

Then  when  came  the  change,  so  long  delayed,  so  be- 
wilderingly  radiant  and  complete  in  the  transformation, 
we  could  scarcely  realize  it. 

We  could  scarcely  realize  that  the  people  were  in  good 
truth  free,  that  the  octopus  was  dead,  that  California  had 
an  honest  governor,  and  faithful  legislators,  that  San 
Francisco  had  an  honest  mayor  and  faithful  supervisors, 
that  laws  were  made  which  should  establish  forever  a 
glorious  reign  of  righteousness.  But  when  we  saw  the 
high-crime  men  of  money  haul  down  their  filthy  bunting, 
those  who  to  spite  good  men  had  put  in  office  Eugene 
Schmitz,  his  satellites  and  successors,  and  had  sickened  over 
their  work ;  when  we  saw  the  journals  that  had  sold  them- 
selves and  the  city  come  crawling  back  into  place  we  knew 
that  indeed  the  change  had  been  effected. 

It  was  like  the  awakening  to  health  and  happiness  after 
a  long  and  troubled  sleep,  California  was  redeemed,  rescued 
from  sin  and  its  consequences.  The  Dark  Age  of  Graft 
was  ended  and  a  new  Interregnum  of  crime  was  begun. 
There  yet  remained  blocking  the  way  to  unbounded  pros- 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  491 

perity  only  the  two  incubi,  the  labor  trust  and  the  exclu- 
sion of  the  Chinese.  So  long  as  these  should  remain,  good 
government  were  futile  and  the  Panama  canal  a  farce. 

Yet  the  banker  and  close  communion  capitalist  of  San 
Francisco,  though  glad  to  be  relieved  on  any  terms  from 
a  government  by  labor  leaders  like  Schmitz  and  McCarthy, 
such  as  they  had  inaugurated,  still  displayed  their  rancor 
and  the  quality  of  their  patriotism  by  refusing  to  purchase 
the  city  railroad  bonds,  which  at  the  liberal  rate  of  four  and 
a  half  per  cent,  interest,  and  with  the  substantial  improve- 
ments going  forward  offered  every  inducement  for  invest- 
ment. But  the  old  Adam,  and  the  primary  principle  of 
their  lives,  self  before  all,  yet  remained. 

Without  any  laws  or  regulations  to  guide  him,  the  new 
mayor,  Mr.  Rolph,  of  his  own  accord  adopted  so  far  as 
practicable  the  commission  form  of  government,  which  im- 
plies that  office-holders  are  employes  of  the  people,  who  are. 
to  conduct  the  affairs  of  the  municipality  as  an  intelligent 
and  thrifty  merchant  or  manufacturer  would  conduct  his 
own  business. 

If  with  a  good  form  of  government  and  the  strength 
withal  to  enforce  it ;  if  for  ourselves  our  families  and  suc- 
cessors we  do  not  prefer  to  breathe  the  pure  air  of  decency 
and  morality  to  the  foul  malaria  of  political  cesspools,  then 
with  all  our  riches  we  are  the  poorest  of  humanity,  with  all 
our  strength  we  are  the  weakest,  with  all  our  learning  we 
are  the  most  unwise. 

To  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  the  ideals  of  1776  seemed 
sound  and  practicable,  and  were  so  if  the  conditions  as 
tacitly  implied  had  been  maintained.  These  related  to  a 
population  chiefly  of  Anglo-Saxon  colonists,  and  not  to  an 
influx  of  low-grade  aliens  and  a  horde  of  emancipated. 
African  slaves. 

It  were  well  indeed  for  us  to  pause  at  this  juncture 
and  indulge  in  a  little  self -analysis,  and  see  how  far  short 
we  come  to  our  professions,  especially  in  regard  to  pure 
patriotism  and  clean  morality.  Universal  suffrage  may 


492  RETROSPECTION 

be  carried  so  far  as  to  become  more  despotic  than  pure 
despotism.  Yet  it  can  scarcely  be  carried  farther  than  it 
now  is  with  us. 

Good  government  ideals  of  to-day  imply,  in  whole  or 
in  part,  men  only  of  known  ability  and  integrity  for 
office;  the  application  of  the  initiative,  referendum,  and 
recall,  and  a  commission  of  reliable  men  to  act  on  busi- 
ness principles;  no  economic  coercion,  whether  by  capital 
or  labor;  municipal  ownership  of  public  utilities;  fran- 
chises granted  for  not  longer  than  twenty  years  and  sub- 
ject to  revocation  and  purchase  after  five  years;  election 
of  the  United  States  senators  by  direct  vote  of  the  people ; 
employers'  liability;  conservation  of  national  resources; 
able  and  honest  judges;  efficient  courts  of  justice;  prompt 
and  effective  criminal  procedure. 

If  we  are  ever  to  reach  that  standard  of  excellence  to 
which  every  progressive  commonwealth  aspires  we  must 
as  fast  as  practicable  raise  the  standard  of  suffrage,  for 
we  cannot  expect  pure  flowing  water  from  foul  sources. 
We  must  punish  promptly  and  alike  high  crime  and  low 
crime,  the  rich  and  the  poor,  else  it  were  better  to  abolish 
courts.  The  two  great  economic  forces,  capital  and  labor, 
must  be  held  in  subjection  by  the  people  and  not  be  per- 
mitted to  assume  the  functions  or  usurp  the  prerogatives 
of  government. 

Conditions  social,  political,  and  industrial  throughout 
the  United  States  have  changed  during  the  last  two  dec- 
ades. Whether  on  the  whole  these  changes  have  been  for 
the  better  or  for  the  worse  depends  upon  the  individual 
ideals  and  the  point  of  view.  Doubtless  all  will  agree 
that  some  changes  have  been  for  the  better  and  some  for 
the  worse,  though  as  to  which  are  for  the  better  and 
which  are  for  the  worse  all  will  not  agree.  All  will  agree 
that  steam  and  electricity,  attended  by  numberless  dis- 
coveries and  inventions,  have  wrought  out  many  benefits 
to  mankind.  All  will  not  agree  that  increase  in  popula- 
tion compensates  for  its  deterioration  in  quality;  that  in- 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  493 

crease  in  wealth  compensates  for  laxity  in  morals,  and 
other  like  questions. 

But  the  greatest  of  all  changes  appears  in  that  over- 
throw of  equal  rights,  that  ethical  abortion  now  openly 
supported  if  not  actually  avowed,  that  the  operations  of 
the  law  are  not  or  should  not  be  the  same  for  the  rich 
man  and  the  poor  man,  that  the  rich  should  not  be  pun- 
ished for  the  same  crimes  for  which  the  poor  must  suffer. 
That  this  monstrous  doctrine,  so  vile,  so  unjust,  so  un- 
American  could  find  advocates  among  the  so-called  re- 
spectable rich  men,  shows  more  than  anything  else  how 
deep  the  degradation  into  which  the  greed  for  gold  has 
plunged  a  certain  class  of  our  people. 

And  here  the  questions  arise,  not  questions  of  the 
alarmist  but  of  the  plain  practical  man  of  common  sense, 
when  will  the  limit  be  reached,  and  what  will  be  the  out- 
come of  this  heaping  up  of  wealth,  with  this  startling 
uplift  of  the  human  mind  and  human  methods?  The 
United  States  is  the  richest  nation  in  the  world  to-day, 
the  richest  nation  and  the  most  enlightened,  and  the  most 
rapidly  advancing  in  educational  and  industrial  develop- 
ment. Every  twenty  or  thirty  years  our  wealth  doubles, 
and  every  twenty  or  thirty  years  our  iniquities  double. 
To  all  this  there  is  a  limit,  for  nations  like  individuals  are 
born  and  die.  The  years  are  passing  swiftly,  but  swifter 
still  rushes  forward  our  destiny.  Education  and  religion, 
of  momentous  import  in  their  way,  do  not  seem  to  have 
the  power  to  save  us  from  ourselves,  for  with  the  elabora- 
tion of  outward  forms  we  do  not  seem  to  improve  in 
moral  integrity.  Can  it  be  possible  that  we  have  already 
reached  the  zenith  in  our  marvellous  flight  and  that  we 
are  now  on  the  downward  grade? 

One  thing  is  sure,  never  yet  was  a  nation  enduringly 
erected  on  a  foundation  of  fraud  and  injustice.  If  you 
build  into  your  walls  dishonesty,  bribery,  immorality,  and 
all  those  kindred  vices  which  attend  the  rapid  accumula- 
tion of  wealth  and  power  in  the  hands  of  individuals,  the 


494  RETROSPECTION 

edifice  is  sure  to  fall.  Rome  was  a  thousand  years  old 
when  her  decadence  set  in.  We  are  not  yet  two  hundred ; 
yet  in  these,  the  days  of  our  youth,  we  were  but  lately  on  as 
broad  a  road  to  perdition  as  any  ever  Rome  or  Carthage 
travelled. 

Why,  and  how?  In  this  way.  With  our  emancipation 
from  some  of  the  superstitions  of  our  forefathers  we  have 
thrown  off  too  many  of  their  virtues  which  carry  with 
them  the  fundamental  principles  of  an  enduring  common- 
wealth. We  openly  avow  our  preference  for  prosperity  to 
morality,  for  good  business  to  good  principles.  Justice  is 
a  by -word ;  our  courts  of  law  trick-machines  for  the  clear- 
ing of  criminals;  the  spirit  of  the  law  made  subservient 
to  the  letter  of  the  law.  We  prefer  in  office  bad  men  to 
good  men,  for  when  bad  men  rule,  men  open  to  bribery 
and  winking  at  our  short-comings,  we  fancy  we  can  make 
more  money.  That  is  the  truth,  and  it  shows  up  pretty 
well  the  quality  of  our  new  individualism. 

Meanwhile,  the  influential  men  of  business  fancied  that 
they  were  making  business  when  in  reality  they  were  only 
debauching  business,  that  they  were  safe-guarding  prop- 
erty when  they  were  making  property  less  secure  by  per- 
mitting fraud  to  act  as  one  of  its  trustees. 

It  is  a  great  advance  towards  purity  in  politics  when 
the  government  which  has  been  taken  from  the  people  by 
special  interests  is  restored  to  the  people  by  the  initiative 
and  referendum.  During  the  past  forty  years  representa- 
tive government  in  many  places  has  been  to  a  great  extent 
a  farce  and  a  fraud.  The  people,  whose  right  alone  it  is 
to  choose  the  men  to  make  and  execute  the  laws  for  them, 
were  powerless  because  of  boss  rule  and  machine  politics. 

There  are  a  few  men  left,  thank  God,  let  us  hope 
enough  of  them  to  resalt  this  rotting  earth,  who  are  in- 
herently honest,  who  are  true  men  because  they  cannot 
help  it;  who  prefer  cleanliness  to  filth,  moral  purity  to 
vice,  because  fresh  pure  air  is  to  them  pleasanter  than  the 
effluvium  of  the  slums;  who  love  right  because  it  is  right, 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  495 

and  have  a  sneaking  kindness  for  their  country  because 
they  are  made  that  way  and  cannot  change. 

Such  a  man  is  Hiram  Johnson;  such  a  man  he  has 
proved  himself  to  be;  such  a  man  he  will  always  be  for 
to  be  otherwise  will  not  be  himself. 

What  did  it  the  maker  of  men  only  knows.  It  was  not 
heredity;  it  was  not  environment,  that  is  to  say,  so  far  as 
eyes  can  see;  it  was  simply  kismet. 

Be  this  as  it  may,  he  is  as  he  is,  and  it  were  wise  in  us 
to  make  the  most  of  him  while  we  may. 

He  was  born  in  Sacramento  and  brought  up  a  lawyer, 
neither  of  which  circurr. stances  in  itself  would  make  one 
good  or  great.  That  he  is  a  good  man  his  whole  life 
shows ;  that  he  is  a  strong  man  his  battles  with  high  crime 
prove ;  that  he  is  a  man  firm  in  the  right  and  of  enduring 
purpose,  the  use  he  makes  of  his  victory  over  the  octopus 
gives  us  assurance. 

It  is  well  to  know  a  good  man  when  we  meet  him. 
Washington  was  one,  and  Lincoln,  and  Roosevelt.  In  like 
manner  by  his  fruits  we  are  to  know  that  Hiram  Johnson 
is  one.  At  this  writing  we  feel  very  sure  that  as  long  as 
he  is  governor  California  will  have  a  good  government. 

With  the  new  governor  Hiram  Johnson  gave  the  state 
a  reformed  legislature,  which  at  its  first  session  passed 
some  hundreds  of  laws  which  forever  place  a  return  to 
former  conditions  beyond  the  power  of  corrupt  politicians 
to  accomplish. 

No  one  ever  did  more  effective  work,  both  before  and 
after  his  election,  than  Mr.  Johnson  has  done.  Ten  thou- 
sand united  citizens  of  San  Francisco  in  1856  delivered 
the  city  from  political  corruption  and  misrule;  Hiram 
Johnson  in  1910,  unaided  and  alone,  delivered  the  state 
from  the  grasp  of  a  money  power  which  had  held  it  as  in 
a  vise  for  a  period  of  two  score  years. 

It  was  a  wonderful  achievement,  one  man  and  his 
motor,  one  man  with  one  heart,  one  mind,  one  tongue, 
traversing  the  state  from  side  to  side,  from  end  to  end, 


496  RETROSPECTION 

many  trips,  each  trip  a  thousand  miles  or  more,  one  man 
alone  by  the  indomitable  force  of  his  will  declaring  that 
these  things  shall  be,  sounding  the  death  knell  of  tyranny, 
proclaiming  peace  and  good  will,  calling  upon  all  the 
people  to  rise  and  be  free.  One  man  alone,  I  say,  and 
with  none  too  plethoric  a  pocket-book,  opposing  a  huge 
merciless  machine  with  thousands  of  men  to  work  it  and 
hundreds  of  millions  of  money  behind  it.  And  the  one 
man  wins  because  he  is  a  man,  and  because  he  is  right. 

Of  this  political  campaign,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
achievements  of  the  kind  by  a  single  individual,  unaided 
and  alone,  whirled  from  place  to  place  in  his  automobile, 
standing  in  it  while  talking  to  the  people  as  to  friends 
and  brothers,  pleading  with  them  to  be  true  to  themselves, 
true  to  their  country  and  throw  off  the  hateful  bonds  of 
iniquity  which  they  had  so  slavishly  worn  for  forty  years, 
achieved  along  lines  of  purity  and  principle  alone,  he 
says,  "I  really  thought,  when  I  began,  that  it  was  simply 
a  case  of  closing  up  my  office  long  enough  to  take  my  beat- 
ing and  then  going  back  to  work  with  the  consciousness 
of  a  duty  done.  It  wasn't  until  I  had  gone  out  in  the 
automobile  and  got  out  among  the  people,  that  I  realized 
how  widely  the  knowledge  of  conditions  had  spread,  and 
how  eager  the  people  were  for  a  release  from  the  domina- 
tion of  corrupt  politicians  and  corporations.  Then  I  real- 
ized that  I  really  had  a  chance  to  win,  that  the  big  oppor- 
tunity to  try  to  make  things  better,  of  which  I  had 
dreamed,  was  going  to  be  mine.  That  was  what  put  heart 
into  the  fight  and  carried  us  through  successfully." 

The  results  arising  from  Johnson's  efforts  were  more 
effective  than  ever  could  have  been  imagined.  The  one  law, 
for  example,  out  of  a  thousand  other  good  laws,  which 
created  a  railroad  commission  to  regulate  public  utilities 
transformed  at  one  stroke  the  vast  power  of  combined  capi- 
tal from  the  mastery  to  the  subserviency  of  the  people,  and 
opened  the  way  for  like  regulation  of  combined  labor 
breeding  like  infamies. 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  497 

And  as  for  Roosevelt,  whatever  else  may  be  said  of  him, 
his  character  and  qualities,  he  must  ever  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  world's  great  reformers,  as  one  of  the  world's 
greatest  men. 

A  conviction  of  sin  is  the  first  step  toward  repentance, 
and  Roosevelt  has  convinced  the  world  of  sin,  of  that 
gravest  of  social  and  political  crimes,  the  robbery  of  one's 
country. 

Kings  of  the  craft  pretend  to  think  lightly  of  bribery 
as  a  penal  offense,  at  least  until  they  are  caught.  All  the 
same  they  are  shy  at  the  approach  of  the  constable.  The 
king  bribes,  the  king  can  do  no  wrong,  the  conscience  of 
the  small  fry  and  large  both  know  well  enough  that 
bribery  is  buying  stolen  goods,  goods  the  buyer  knows  to 
have  been  stolen.  They  know  that  the  franchise  they 
buy  is  public  property,  and  that  the  proceeds  from  it 
should  go  into  the  public  treasury.  He  who  buys  it  is  a 
thief,  a  felon;  he  buys  what  belongs  to  all  the  people, 
obtains  a  valuable  property  for  less  than  it  is  worth, 
cheats  his  neighbor,  and  debauches  public  officials. 

It  is  safe  to  say,  if  we  except  Washington  and  Lincoln, 
that  Theodore  Roosevelt  has  done  more  and  better  for  the 
American  people  than  any  other  president;  it  is  safe  to 
say,  without  excepting  any  one,  that  he  has  done  more 
to  awaken  the  public  conscience,  to  arrest  the  reign  of 
crime,  to  overthrow  iniquitous  trusts  and  monopolies  and 
to  establish  the  people  in  their  rights  and  privileges  than 
any  one  who  has  ever  lived. 

A  curb  has  been  placed  upon  evils  that  were  rushing 
the  republic  on  to  ruin,  the  dissipation  of  our  natural  re- 
sources, the  overpowering  influence  of  industrial  monop- 
olies, and  the  promotion  of  special  interests  to  the  injury 
of  others.  Three  hundred  million  acres  of  public  domain 
have  been  snatched  from  the  hands  of  the  spoilers,  and  a 
limitation  has  been  placed  upon  the  rapacity  of  corporate 
greed  and  defiance  of  federal  authority. 

It  was  a  singular  combination  of  men  and  circum- 


498  RETROSPECTION 

stances  that  brought  salvation  to  San  Francisco  in  1907, 
and  but  for  which  the  city  might  have  gone  on  to  ruin. 

To  begin  with,  Theodore  Roosevelt  discovered  Francis 
J.  Heney,  his  ability  and  fidelity  in  those  difficult  land 
cases  in  Oregon,  of  which  I  have  elsewhere  spoken,  and 
permitted  him  to  go  to  the  relief  of  the  stricken  city  by 
the  Golden  Gate.  Heney  viewed  the  situation  and  prophe- 
sied success  provided  he  could  have  with  him  William  J. 
Burns,  the  most  skilful  detective  outside  of  romance. 
Money  was  required,  and  forth  came  Rudolph  Spreckels; 
and  when  Heney  was  shot  in  court  Hiram  Johnson  and 
Mat  I.  Sullivan  appeared  and  carried  forward  to  comple- 
tion his  cases,  with  no  other  compensation  than  the  con- 
sciousness of  having  performed  a  sacred  duty  to  the  best 
of  their  ability. 

Certain  strong  men  in  Los  Angeles  about  this  time  be- 
came interested  in  good  government.  A  non-partisan  city 
central  committee  was  formed  under  the  auspices  of  Meyer 
Lisner,  E.  T.  Earl,  John  R.  Haynes,  Edward  Dickson, 
Harley  Brundage,  and  others,  which  soon  gave  to  their 
city  a  clean  government.  They  then  attempted  state  re- 
form, joining  Johnson  in  his  work,  and  were  no  less  suc- 
cessful. Thus  California  was  saved. 

The  legislature  following  Governor  Johnson's  election 
was  composed  wholly  of  free  men,  of  men  not  bound  by 
any  special  interests,  the  first  absolutely  free  California 
legislature  convened  within  a  period  of  forty  years. 

Governor  Johnson  made  the  state's  interests  his  busi- 
ness and  worked  out  public  problems  as  one's  personal 
affairs.  He  studied  the  character  and  capabilities  of  every 
appointee  to  office,  basing  his  choice  upon  the  merits  of 
the  man  and  not  upon  the  probability  of  his  influence  in  se- 
curing his  own  reelection. 

Honest  himself  upon  instinct  and  abhorring  rascality 
in  every  form,  he  was  quick  in  detecting  fraud,  in  whatso- 
ever guise  it  appeared  before  him.  Claims  against  the 
state  which  excited  his  suspicions  he  would  not  allow  to  be 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  499 

paid,  but  told  the  claimants  to  sue  the  state,  and  if  their 
demands  were  just  they  would  recover,  if  not  the  fraud 
that  would  appear  would  lead  to  the  detection  of  other 
fraud,  so  that  the  wrong-doers  dare  not  bring  suit.  It  was 
a  trial  not  exactly  by  combat,  but  along  commercial  lines 
leading  to  the  penitentiary. 

Governor  Johnson  signed  753  bills  during  the  first  ses- 
sion of  his  legislature,  the  whole  number  submitted  to 
him  and  upon  which  he  had  to  pass  being  little  less  than 
1000,  work  which  would  have  occupied  the  average  court 
of  justice  for  five  years. 

After  signing  the  last  of  the  legislative  bills  he  took 
a  week's  rest  and  then  proceeded  with  his  routine  of  duties. 

To  magnify  the  importance  of  their  duties,  the  heavy 
responsibility  resting  upon  them,  the  necessity  of  long 
contemplative  study  over  every  case,  certain  judges  talked 
of  the  wearing  upon  their  poor  brains  and  nerves  of  their 
arduous  labors,  and  asked  for  the  appointment  of  addi- 
tional judges,  which  if  made  would  tend  only  to  increase 
their  inanity  and  idleness.  Any  shop-keeper  conducting 
his  business  in  such  a  fashion  would  be  sure  of  bankruptcy. 

Governor  Johnson  refused  all  such  applications,  telling 
the  judges  they  would  better  go  to  work,  setting  the  ex- 
ample himself  by  devoting  more  time  each  day  to  the 
public  weal  than  ever  he  had  given  his  personal  affairs, 
or  than  these  judges  would  give  in  a  week,  which  on  an 
average  was  not  more  than  three  hours  a  day  for  five  days. 

Said  Roosevelt  in  an  address  to  12,000  San  Franciscans : 

"I  most  heartily  congratulate  California  on  its  vigor- 
ous new  birth  in  the  field  of  political  and  social  life.  I 
congratulate  you  on  the  work  your  governor  and  legisla- 
ture have  done  and  are  now  doing.  It  is  not  a  work  for 
your  state  alone,  for  the  whole  country  receives  an  im- 
pulse toward  sounder  thinking  and  higher  living  when 
any  governor  and  any  legislature  translate  professions  into 
practice,  as  has  been  done  at  Sacramento  under  the  lead 
of  Governor  Johnson." 


500  RETROSPECTION 

And  thus  Johnson  of  Roosevelt  and  the  California 
legislature : 

"Much  we  owe  in  common  with  other  states,  but  we 
in  California  especially  owe  to  him  that  quickening  of  the 
public  conscience,  that  virility,  that  manhood  in  citizen- 
ship, that  has  enabled  us  to  meet  and  conquer  the  forces 
of  corruption  in  this  great  state  of  California.  As  he 
declared  in  a  classic  message  for  common  opportunity  and 
common  honesty,  so  California,  with  his  honest  example 
to  guide  it,  went  forward  to  the  state's  regeneration. 

"The  California  legislature  has  just  closed  a  session 
fraught  with  greater  significance  than  any  of  its  predeces- 
sors. To-night  the  men  sit  on  this  platform  who  have 
wrought  a  political  revolution.  I  want  to  say  to  all  you 
people  here  that  you  owe  to  the  120  men  who  sat  in  that 
legislature  a  debt  you  never  can  pay.  For  they  won  for 
you  and  your  children  and  your  children's  children  the 
right  to  perpetuate  government  of  the  people  in  the  state 
of  California." 

Chosen  United  States  senator  when  Johnson  came  into 
office,  John  D.  Works  at  once  made  his  mark  at  Wash- 
ington as  an  able,  high-minded  statesman  and  a  pure 
progressive.  Speaking  of  his  election  he  says: 

"Shortly  after  the  vote  was  taken  in  the  legislature, 
Governor  Johnson  came  into  my  room  at  the  hotel,  his 
face  beaming  with  satisfaction  and  pleasure.  He  sat  down 
and  said  to  me,  'Isn't  it  a  glorious  thing  that  a  man  can 
be  elected  to  the  United  States  senate  in  the  state  of  Cali- 
fornia without  doing  anything  that  can  be  criticised,  or 
spending  a  quarter  of  a  dollar  in  securing  his  elec- 
tion?' " 

After  four  years  of  baffled  justice  in  the  courts,  at  the 
cost  of  thousands  to  the  state  and  millions  to  themselves, 
with  all  the  while  visions  of  cropped  hair  and  stripes  and 
bars,  which  indeed  would  have  been  yet  more  threaten- 
ing but  for  their  friends  of  the  upper  benches,  Patrick 
Calhoun,  Tirey  L.  Ford,  and  others,  were  ordered  dis- 


PROGRESSIVE    GOVERNMENT  501 

charged  by  the  appellate  court,  the  lower  courts  and  the 
prosecution  after  their  long  and  faithful  efforts  being 
stigmatized  for  failure  owing  to  the  opposition  of  those 
who  thus  insulted  them. 

The  wonder  is  not  that  so  few  of  the  arch-offenders 
were  sent  to  prison,  but  that  so  much  was  accomplished 
in  the  face  of  such  strong  opposition.  Nests  of  iniquity 
were  brought  to  light,  and  exposed,  and  crime  intimidated, 
but  with  the  millions  of  money  behind  it  all,  money 
poured  out  like  water  to  save  its  owners  from  prison,  wit- 
nesses bribed  and  sent  away,  their  dwellings  dynamited, 
the  champion  of  the  people  shot  down  in  open  court,  news- 
papers filled  with  lies  and  scurrility,  a  non-prosecuting 
attorney  chosen  from  the  more  facile  of  the  profession, 
and  a  majority  of  the  upper  judges  clearly  on  the  side  of 
the  criminals, — in  the  face  of  all  this  a  masterly  four- 
years'  fight  was  an  achievement  of  which  the  people  and 
the  prosecution  need  never  be  ashamed. 

A  source  of  never-ending  interest  to  Detective  Burns 
was  Abraham  Ruef,  sharp  as  steel  and  yet  weak  enough 
at  times.  Ruef  fancied  himself  a  good  fellow,  kind  and 
liberal,  as  he  could  well  afford  to  be  considering  the  large 
amounts  in  which  he  dealt  and  the  ease  of  getting  them. 
The  sums  given  in  his  confession  were, — from  the  United 
Railways,  $200,000,  from  Parkside,  $15,000,  Gas  Co.,  $20,- 
000,  Fight  trust,  $50,000,  Home  Telephone  Company, 
$125,000,  Pacific  States  Telephone  Co.,  $75,000;  also  from 
prostitution  houses  and  other  places,  other  like  amounts, 
and  the  alleged  promise  of  a  million  out  of  the  Tevis  bay 
cities  scheme,  supposed  to  be  working  for  ten  millions 
from  San  Francisco. 

"He  couldn't  do  anything  straight,"  Burns  used  to 
say.  "Scheming  was  as  natural  to  him  as  breathing,  the 
odium  of  treachery  never  troubled  him,  though  he  did  say 
between  sobs,  of  which  he  had  always  plenty,  'I  hate  like 
hell  to  betray  Ford;  he  has  been  just  like  a  brother  to  me.' 

"His  greed  was  unequalled,  his  cowardice  was  the  limit, 
17 


502  RETROSPECTION 

his  vanity  beyond  belief.  Each  time  I  saw  Ruef  there  was 
some  new  quibble ;  no  promise  or  contract  bound  him. ' ' 

Frustrated  in  his  endeavors  by  corrupt  judges  and  the 
money  of  corrupt  citizens  Heney  at  length  offered  him- 
self as  candidate  for  district  attorney,  pledged  to  enforce 
the  law,  but  failed  to  be  elected.  Capital  and  labor  seemed 
to  prefer  a  district  attorney  said  to  be  pledged  not  to  en- 
force the  law,  and  thus  the  good  people  of  the  city  showed 
their  gratitude  for  the  brave  efforts  of  those  who  had 
wrought  for  them  inestimable  benefits. 

Combined  labor  and  capital  managed  to  out-number 
the  26,000  votes  of  good  men  and  hence  the  disgrace. 

It  is  as  easy  to  have  good  government  as  bad  govern- 
ment; as  easy  to  get  along  honestly  laying  bricks  as  to 
live  on  the  proceeds  of  burglary.  It  is  as  easy  to  be  clean 
and  healthy  as  to  be  forever  wallowing  in  the  filth  of 
immorality.  To  lift  ourselves  out  of  a  foul  environment 
we  must  govern  ourselves  better,  drive  railways,  corporate 
capital,  and  labor  impositions  out  of  politics,  and  compel 
our  courts  to  deal  out  justice  promptly,  without  quibbling, 
to  rich  and  poor  alike.  We  must  be  honest  and  decently 
moral;  free  and  without  hypocrisy,  so  that  we  may  truth- 
fully register  ourselves  among  the  nations  of  the  Great 
Unafraid. 

Let  us  not  be  discouraged.  Progressive  effort  has  ac- 
complished much.  It  has  broken  down  bossism  and  opened 
the  door  for  actual  self-government.  It  has  broken  down 
monopolies,  and  subordinated  trusts.  It  has  warned  labor 
against  violence  and  capital  against  tyranny.  It  has 
aroused  the  national  conscience,  bringing  good  men  to  their 
feet,  ready  to  do  their  duty.  It  has  revived  the  sentiment 
of  purity,  enlivened  the  spirit  of  liberty,  and  has  brought 
hope  to  the  despondent.  And  none  too  soon.  For  as  sure 
as  ever  Rome  lived  and  died,  this  Republic  was  on  the 
broad  road  to  destruction. 


CHAPTER   XXVI 

GLORIA     IN     EXCELSIS 

WHILE  engaged  on  this  Retrospection,  and  some 
time  before  its  completion,  I  saw  gradually  over- 
spreading the  Republic,  especially  along  its  western  bor- 
der, a  moral  revolution.  I  saw  with  deepest  satisfaction 
the  work  begun  by  Theodore  Roosevelt  for  the  ameliora- 
tion of  the  world,  and  continued  by  Hiram  Johnson  for 
the  more  especial  benefit  of  my  own  beloved  California 
and  the  Pacific  seaboard,  bearing  fruit,  their  noble  efforts 
crowned  with  success. 

Not  that  the  work  is  done;  it  is  only  the  beginning; 
but  enough  has  been  accomplished  to  satisfy  me  that  for 
the  present  at  all  events  the  American  people  will  not  be 
content  to  return  to  the  days  of  dishonesty  and  pluto- 
cratic rule. 

While  the  graft  bribers  were  fighting  in  the  courts, 
and  the  railway  and  government  were  running  hand  in 
hand  along  the  same  track,  and  our  delectable  mayor  was 
bringing  a  blush  to  the  face  of  those  yet  capable  of  feeling 
shame  by  reason  of  his  empty  head  and  blatant  tongue, 
there  were  certain  worthy  citizens  who  had  been  long 
studying  the  situation,  and  were  now  forging  the  keys  for 
our  deliverance. 

So  there  is  yet  hope  for  the  Republic.  Though  the 
days  of  our  years  are  numbered  we  may  still  see  several 
to-morrows,  for  the  people  wake  from  their  slumbers, 
sometimes,  and  take  a  look  around. 

The  people;  though  we  are  not  what  our  forefathers 
had  hoped  for  us  ere  this;  though  in  some  respects  we  are 

603 


504  RETROSPECTION 

retrograding  instead  of  advancing,  gradually  the  vital 
problems  of  our  progress  are  undergoing  solution,  and 
time  is  still  given  us  in  which  we  may  learn  to  be  wise. 

The  founders  of  the  Republic  were  selections  from  the 
best  strains  in  Europe,  that  is  to  say  Anglo-Saxon  and 
Teutonic.  So  long  as  immigration  continued  along  original 
lines  all  went  well,  but  with  the  coming  of  the  Latin  ele- 
ment and  the  Slav  the  quality  of  population  diminished 
as  the  quantity  increased. 

During  the  last  half  century  the  personnel  of  this 
confederation  of  states  has  not  improved.  There  may  be 
more  intelligence  but  there  is  less  integrity.  There  has 
been  a  falling  off  in  patriotism,  in  self-sacrifice,  or  any 
form  of  unselfish  devotion  to  the  well-being  of  the  people; 
there  is  less  of  it  proportionately  than  before  the  incoming 
of  so  many  strangers  ignorant  of  our  institutions  and  in- 
different to  our  traditions. 

What  should  we  expect  from  ten  millions  of  freed 
African  slaves;  twenty  millions  of  low-grade  Europeans; 
thirty  millions  of  inter-mixtures,  upon  whose  dull  ears  the 
fourth  of  July  fire-crackers  sound  every  day  fainter? 
Some  remnants  of  the  original  stock  with  still  a  ring  of 
the  true  metal  in  them  are  present,  notwithstanding  women 
who  want  to  do  the  work  of  men,  leaders  of  labor  who 
want  to  rule,  money-made  statesmen  with  their  political 
henchmen,  and  the  coteries  of  high  and  low  crime  with 
their  attendant  law-courts  and  prisons. 

This  is  what  is  left  over  from  the  New  England 
colonies  and  the  Virginia  country,  with  the  refuse  from 
Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  thrown  in,  all  stewed  into  a 
sometime  unsavory  mess  by  the  united  infelicities  of  cap- 
ital and  labor. 

It  was  scarcely  the  best  of  material  for  the  making  of 
a  great  nation,  scarcely  as  high  grade  as  might  have  been 
had  the  original  proprietors  been  less  eager  to  secure 
settlers  and  create  wealth.  But  notwithstanding  the  many 
debasing  intermixtures  made  in  our  population  there  is  a 


GLORIA   IN   EXCELSIS  505 

hope  that  through  the  scrubbing  of  schools  and  the  pal- 
pable necessity  of  self-protection  the  Republic  may 
rise  again  into  an  atmosphere  of  honesty  and  morality, 
without  which  no  nation  can  prosper. 

If  the  Anglo-American  element  can  keep  control  of 
affairs  for  a  century  or  two  longer,  holding  in  abeyance 
the  Celt,  the  Slav,  the  Latin,  the  Afric,  and  the  Asiatic, 
meanwhile  shutting  out  the  further  influx  of  low-grade 
aliens  from  every  quarter,  there  may  yet  be  hope  for  im- 
provement, though  we  should  be  unable  wholly  to  regain 
what  has  been  lost. 

We  have  had  no  time  as  yet  to  consider  either  anarchy 
or  oligarchies,  this  greatest  of  republics,  with  its  money- 
lords,  and  labor-lords,  and  high  honorable  lords  grafter. 
Wherefore  may  we  welcome  with  joy  the  scintillating  light 
appearing  now  and  then  among  the  law-makers  and  their 
staunch  supporters,  which  shows  that  the  republican  corpse 
is  not  quite  ready  for  burial. 

A  glorious  light,  star  of  the  east  ascendant,  direct 
primary,  referendum,  and  recall,  with  municipal  govern- 
ment by  a  commission  which  places  the  responsibility  upon 
men  supposed  to  rule  upon  business  principles,  without 
graft,  or  bribery,  or  toll  from  brothels,  or  from  building 
contracts,  or  from  sales  of  city  franchises  to  grasping  cor- 
porations, the  proceeds  to  be  divided  among  the  pilferers. 
A  railroad  commission  bill  is  an  important  step  toward  the 
control  of  corporations  and  public  utilities,  then  there  are 
the  presidential  preference  primary,  the  election  of  sena- 
tors by  popular  vote,  and  other  important  measures  before 
the  people. 

The  direct  primary  election;  bossism  does  not  like  it, 
does  not  like  the  nomination  of  candidates  by  ail  the  voters 
at  a  primary  election  instead  of  by  delegates  to  a  conven- 
tion, or  by  caucus  of  evil-minded  men  with  but  few  if  any 
honest  citizens  present. 

This  for  the  first  application  to  clear  away  the  outer 
obstructions. 


506  RETROSPECTION 

Next  the  referendum,  the  power  to  require  laws  passed 
by  a  legislative  body  to  be  ratified  by  the  voters  before 
becoming  operative  whenever  such  ratification  is  demanded 
by  a  certain  percentage  of  the  voters. 

Obviously  bad  for  the  bribers. 

Lastly,  the  recall,  the  power  to  remove  the  holder  of 
any  elective  office  and  put  in  his  place  another. 

Ah!  there  is  the  rub.  This  does  not  at  all  suit  high 
crime,  special  interests,  or  wealthy  corporations.  What! 
call  them  in  just  as  we  get  properly  fixed,  a  law-maker 
who  will  follow  our  instructions,  or  a  governor  of  easy 
integrity  who  will  look  at  things  the  right  way,  or  a 
supreme  court  who  will  decide  a  case  for  us  before  hearing 
it,  or  tell  us  in  advance  how  to  bring  a  suit  or  conduct  a 
defense  along  labyrinthine  ways  bordered  by  accommo- 
dating technicalities  so  as  to  give  us  what  we  want,  and 
always  according  to  law,  strictly  according  to  law,  for  law 
is  the  best  friend  of  bright  knavish  fellows  who  know  how 
to  use  it. 

What!  call  him  in,  that  district  attorney  whose  soul 
we  bought,  placing  him  in  office  pledged  to  our  interests, 
pledged  to  dismiss  all  suits  liable  to  send  us  to  prison, 
after  so  much  dynamiting  and  spiriting  away  of  witnesses, 
sending  whole  families  to  Europe  and  supporting  them 
there  at  heavy  expense  while  all  these  criminal  prosecu- 
tions are  going  on  against  us? 

What!  call  down  the  mayor  just  after  we  have  paid 
him  for  a  franchise,  paid  him  money  which  he  pocketed 
and  which  should  have  gone  to  the  city,  and  that  before 
he  has  rendered  us  the  promised  equivalent  ?  It  is  a  crime 
thus  to  steal  from  us  when  he  should  steal  only  from  the 
city. 

Pity  the  gentlemen  of  the  road,  these  poor  knights  of 
the  highway,  but  congratulate  the  people,  who  begin  to 
breathe  more  freely  having  in  sight  an  interregnum  of 
crime  if  not  a  Utopia  or  a  millennium. 

It  was  at  first  the  general  impression  that  the  recall 


GLORIA    IN    EXCELSIS  507 

should  not  apply  to  judges,  but  the  continued  turning  loose 
of  criminals  by  the  upper  courts  as  fast  as  the  superior 
judges  convicted  them,  the  prolonging  of  litigation  by 
raising  innumerable  technicalities  and  the  granting  of 
new  trials,  all  at  useless  and  enormous  cost  to  the  tax- 
payers, soon  convinced  the  legislature  and  the  people  that 
nowhere  was  the  arm  of  justice  more  needed  to  apply 
than  to  the  high  court  of  justice  itself. 

Let  us  thank  God  and  take  courage  that  lost  apparently 
in  bossism  and  avarice  there  were  still  true  men  enough 
left  to  save  the  country  on  whom  fell  this  inspiration  of 
reform  as  from  the  skies.  So  palpable  were  the  advan- 
tages of  the  recall  that  throughout  the  United  States  the 
measure  was  generally  received  with  favor,  except  as  to 
the  recall  of  judges,  where  a  difference  of  opinion  arose, 
the  legal  profession  being  largely  against  it. 

Owing  to  direct  legislation  laws  Oregon  has  become  one 
of  the  most  progressive  states  in  the  union,  and  has  de- 
veloped one  of  the  best  of  governments.  It  is  as  near 
true  and  intelligent  republicanism  as  may  be  found  any- 
where. 

Through  the  initiative  Oregon  obtained  the  direct 
primary,  local  option,  election  of  the  people's  choice  for 
United  States  senator,  local  self-government  for  cities,  a 
recall  that  applies  to  judges  as  well  as  other  elective  offi- 
cials, a  gross-earnings  tax  on  sleeping  car,  refrigerator, 
and  oil  car  companies,  a  new  practice  act,  an  employers' 
liability  act,  regulation  of  taxes  by  counties,  and  a  three- 
fourths  verdict  in  civil  cases. 

Through  the  same  power  Oregon  has  abolished  the  poll- 
tax  and  extended  the  provisions  of  the  direct  primary  law 
in  a  way  that  enables  her  voters  to  express  their  preference 
for  president  of  the  United  States.  Of  the  twenty-five 
initiative  measures  rejected  by  the  voters  seven  provided 
for  the  creation  of  additional  counties,  and  three  were 
amendments  granting  the  ballot  to  women.  The  other 
fifteen  included  one  providing  for  a  state  magazine,  two 


508  RETROSPECTION 

for  extra  taxes  to  support  unnecessary  normal  schools,  and 
one  for  an  unnecessary  state  commission. 

The  worn  out  argument  of  the  profession  that  judges 
should  not  be  placed  in  a  position  which  might  subject 
them  to  intimidation  on  the  part  of  the  people  loses  its 
force  as  applied  to  the  judiciary  of  California,  past  and 
present.  No  viler  men  ever  lived  than  some  who  have  sat 
on  the  supreme  bench  of  California,  one  of  whom  was 
seized,  imprisoned,  tried,  and  condemned  by  the  people. 
He  would  have  been  hanged  if  the  victim  of  his  bowie 
knife  had  died. 

It  is  a  noticeable  fact  that  officers  of  the  law,  including 
judges,  are  quite  as  ready  to  break  the  law  as  are  laymen, 
whereupon  the  officer  of  the  law  calls  in  the  law  to  protect 
him  against  the  penalty  for  breaking  the  law.  It  is  a  fine 
machine,  the  law,  and  in  the  hands  of  a  skilled  chauffeur 
works  equally  well,  or  ill,  either  way,  forward  or  back- 
ward. 

The  late  supreme  court  of  California  had  acquired  a 
bad  habit  of  throwing  back  upon  society  upon  the  silliest 
of  technicalities  every  rich  criminal  brought  before  it. 
Nothing  could  have  been  more  wicked  or  unwarranted 
than  the  discharge  from  prison  of  Schmitz  and  Ruef  after 
fair  and  clear  conviction  supplemented  by  confession.  And 
when  Ruef  after  further  trial  and  conviction  was  brought 
before  this  same  tribunal  another  discharge  was  almost 
certain. 

The  people  saw  it  all  plainly  enough.  As  elsewhere 
explained  Schmitz  and  the  labor  leaders  smiled  to  them- 
selves; high  crime  was  delighted.  Behold  the  majesty  of 
the  law!  they  cried.  Touch  not  its  sacred  robes.  But 
certain  of  the  lords  high  chancellor  of  majestic  law  itself 
were  caught  tripping.  Evidently  they  had  not  themselves 
that  profound  regard  for  the  letter  of  the  law  which  they 
wished  to  impress  upon  others.  In  extenuation  the  court 
put  forth  the  plea  that  the  irregularity  of  which  it  was 
guilty  had  been  practised  by  them  for  a  score  of  years, 


GLORIA   IN    EXCELSIS  509 

the  illegality  thereby  becoming  good  law  and  properly 
established  as  precedent! 

The  legislature  was  then  in  session,  and  before  it  for 
discussion  was  the  question  of  the  recall  of  judges.  The 
newly  elected  United  States  senator,  John  D.  Works,  some 
time  lawyer  and  judge,  opposed  the  measure,  calling  it 
reform  run  mad,  to  the  indignation  of  the  legislature  and 
the  state.  But  while  on  his  way  to  Washington,  hearing 
of  the  alleged  defection  of  certain  of  the  supreme  judges, 
he  telegraphed  back  that,  if  true,  those  judges  should  be 
impeached.  Whereat  the  friends  of  recall  were  somewhat 
mollified. 

The  judges  took  alarm.  Here,  then,  at  this  junc- 
ture, we  may  as  well  as  at  any  other  time  or  place,  pause 
and  consider  whether  or  not  these  judges  should  be  in- 
timidated by  the  legislature  and  the  people,  whether  any 
judges  under  any  circumstances  should  be  placed  in  a 
position  to  be  influenced  in  their  opinions  by  the  opinions 
of  any  legislature  or  people.  Some  of  these  judges  were 
vicious  men;  some  of  them  were  as  good  and  pure  men 
as  were  ever  elected  to  office.  They  were  not  known  to  the 
people,  their  merits  and  demerits,  one-  from  the  other,  at 
the  time  of  their  election  as  they  were  known  later.  Were 
it  better  in  such  cases  for  the  people,  makers  of  law  and 
judges,  to  purge  the  commonwealth  of  a  court  like  this, 
or  suffer  its  further  inflictions  of  evil  for  fear  of  what 
might  be  considered  a  too  profane  handling  of  the  case  ? 

In  this  instance  the  judges  sought  out  their  own  salva- 
tion, they  who  had  been  so  conscience-ridden  in  keeping 
others  straight.  They  quickly  reviewed  the  case  of  Ruef 
and  refused  to  reopen  it.  They  vehemently  denied  other 
charges  brought  against  them,  some  of  their  supporters 
forswearing  themselves  in  their  support.  And  most  un- 
expected of  all,  when  certain  old  chronic  criminals  ap- 
peared before  the  court  for  writs  of  habeas  corpus  they 
were  refused,  and  were  ordered  back  into  the  custody  of 
the  sheriff  to  stand  trial  for  bribing  the  Ruef-Schmitz 


510  RETROSPECTION 

board  of  supervisors  to  pass  the  overhead  trolley  fran- 
chise. 

Most  of  the  judges  are  honest;  some  are  not.  We  like 
to  think  them  honest  until  forced  to  think  otherwise.  Few 
judges  will  accept  a  bribe  in  money;  there  are  few  beyond 
the  influence  of  friendship  or  of  self-interest,  for  judges 
are  human. 

So  great  a  man  as  Mr.  Wickersham  makes  so  small  a 
plea  as  this.  "What  are  judges,"  he  asks,  "but  impartial 
arbitrators  to  whom  any  one  of  us  may  be  compelled  at 
any  moment  to  turn  for  protection  of  life  or  property? 
What  will  become  of  that  protection  if  our  system  of 
government  should  subject  him  to  the  rage  of  the  mob 
when  he  asserts  the  supremacy  of  the  law  in  the  face  of 
unjust  clamor?'* 

This  is  a  fair  specimen  of  the  rant  and  nonsense  the 
ablest  jurists  indulge  in  on  this  subject.  Some  of  the 
judges  are  impartial  arbitrators  and  others  are  not.  We 
turn  to  them  for  protection;  sometimes  we  get  it.  It  is  a 
raging  mob  that  drives  out  the  unjust  judge,  though  the 
same  persons  elected  him,  and  were  then  well-ordered  and 
intelligent  citizens. 

We  were  not  surprised  that  Mr,  Taft  should  oppose 
the  recall,  as  he  was  once  a  judge  himself,  and  does  not 
easily  shed  his  prejudices,  but  we  scarcely  expected  him 
to  assume  the  unwarrantable  attitude  of  threatening  to 
veto  any  bill  for  the  admission  to  statehood  of  Arizona 
carrying  with  it  the  recall  of  judges.  But  when  a  presi- 
dent fills  his  cabinet  with  men  whom  to  keep  properly 
whitewashed  requires  the  long  and  expensive  efforts  of  a 
standing  committee,  what  should  we  expect? 

So  many  and  so  peculiar  are  the  vagaries  of  our  Ohio 
president,  that  we  should  naturally  expect  to  find  him  on 
the  wrong  side  of  any  question.  The  people  of  Arizona 
were  wholly  within  their  rights,  and  the  president  ap- 
peared to  go  out  of  his  way  to  gratify  a  petty  spite  unbe- 
coming his  high  position.  His  opinion,  weak  and  warped 


GLOEIA   IN   EXCELSIS  511 

as  is  his  mind,  was  of  little  value  where  his  prejudice  rose 
in  arms  against  the  clear  logic  of  common  sense.  His 
frenzied  follies  and  abuse  of  power  are  destined  to  be 
relegated  with  the  corpulent  body  and  senile  smile  to  the 
political  nightmares  of  the  past. 

Would  it  not  be  as  well  for  us  to  understand  once  for 
all  if  rulership  by  five  of  the  nine  judges  of  the  supreme 
court  is  a  republican  form  of  government,  and  if  the  will 
of  these  five  men  stands  superior  to  the  will  of  a  hundred 
million  of  American  freemen,  and  if  so,  and  there  be  no 
other  remedy,  then  either  abolish  the  United  States  su- 
preme court  or  abolish  the  American  people. 

One  sees  riot  in  recall,  another  calls  it  trial  by  tumult, 
another  reform  run  mad;  these  are  all  expressions  of 
lawyers  prejudiced  in  favor  of  the  profession,  tinctured 
with  the  fanaticism  of  the  sacredness  of  law. 

Houston  of  Tennessee  sees  in  the  recall  of  judges  "A 
source  of  danger  to  the  integrity  of  the  courts,"  while 
Littleton  of  New  York  in  a  shout  of  eloquence  assures  us 
that  "the  recall  of  judges  will  strike  from  the  splendid 
structure  of  free  government  the  arch  upon  which  it  has 
come  to  rest  with  unshaken  confidence," — which  is  rot. 

When  Francis  J.  Heney  declared  before  a  large  audi- 
ence that  within  a  year  he  would  place  certain  San  Fran- 
cisco officials  in  prison,  the  people  were  pleased  to  think 
that  those  who  had  been  robbing  them  were  to  be  brought 
to  an  account.  In  due  time  criminals  were  caught  and 
convicted.  It  was  then  discovered  that  certain  capital- 
ists and  influential  men  of  affairs  were  closely  connected 
with  the  criminals. 

This  gave  a  new  aspect  to  the  case.  Near  the  wealthy 
wrongdoers  were  other  wealthy  men  who  did  not  care  to 
see  their  confreres  punished  as  it  would  injure  business, 
as  they  said.  So  gradually  this  dry  rot  of  dishonesty 
began  to  infect  bankers  and  corporation  managers  until  a 
coterie  of  high  crime  held  the  city  in  its  grip. 

Presiding  over  the  courts  of  law   were    judges,    some 


512  RETROSPECTION 

good  and  some  bad,  some  of  sterling  integrity,  some  of 
innate  evil-mindedness.  The  lower  courts  were  nearer  the 
people,  and  the  upper  courts  nearer  to  high  criminality. 
Antagonisms  increased  until  the  men  of  wealth  who  lived 
on  the  border  of  Stygian  waters  and  feasted  their  friends 
of  the  upper  benches  openly  denounced  all  prosecutions 
of  wealthy  men  as  injurious  to  progress,  while  heartily 
approving  of  the  punishment  of  the  poor,  which  for  ex- 
ample's sake  should  suffice  for  rich  and  poor  alike. 

Had  there  been  any  doubts  about  the  passage  of  the 
measure  for  the  recall  of  judges  in  California  the  conduct 
of  the  supreme  court,  now  thoroughly  aroused  by  fears 
for  its  own  safety,  would  have  set  them  at  rest.  It  be- 
came clearly  apparent  that  certain  of  them  belonged  to 
the  railroad  and  others  were  notoriously  corrupt.  The 
result  was  that  all  municipal  criminals  who  failed  of 
acquittal  by  means  of  the  usual  bullying  by  lawyers  and 
false  swearing  of  witnesses  in  the  lower  courts  were 
promptly  discharged  on  appeal  to  the  higher  tribunals. 

Thus  the  mayor  thief,  Schmitz,  was  set  at  liberty  upon 
a  technicality  so  small  and  absurd  as  to  bring  a  smile  to 
the  wooden  face  of  the  jailer  who  unlocked  the  door  for 
him. 

People  saw  now  with  humiliation  and  regret  that  the 
time  and  money  spent  to  bring  rich  or  influential  crim- 
inals to  justice  were  thrown  away,  that  as  fast  as  evil- 
doers presented  themselves  before  the  court  of  appeals 
and  the  supreme  court  they  were  turned  loose  upon  the 
community,  even  though  proof,  backed  by  confession,  was 
positive. 

Surely  here  was  a  case  for  recall.  Here  was  an  example 
of  the  necessity  of  the  recall  for  judges.  Little  wonder 
that  judges  would  if  they  were  able  exempt  the  judiciary 
from  the  judgment  of  the  people! 

The  Mongolians  were  quick  to  catch  the  spirit  of  the 
time. 

"You  hang  for  that,  Ah  Chung,"  wailed  Ah  Foy,  as 


GLORIA   IN    EXCELSIS  513 

he  saw  his  friend  drive  his  knife  into  the  gentle  bosom 
of  Ah  Li. 

"No,  I  no  hang.  I  got  two  tousand  dollars.  You  sabe, 
Chinaman  no  hab  money,  he  hang;  hab  money,  no  hang, 
all  same  Melican  man." 

Thus  it  was  that  while  all  was  in  train  for  the  dis- 
charge of  Ruef,  the  supreme  court  was  obliged  to  close 
the  door  on  him,  and  he  slipped  back  into  his  long  term 
of  imprisonment  a  deeply  disappointed  man. 

They  that  take  to  technicalities  shall  perish  by  techni- 
calities. 

.This  was  the  case  upon  application  in  the  supreme 
court  in  the  case  of  Abraham  Ruef  convicted  of  bribery; 
the  order  granting  a  rehearing  was  signed  by  four  judges 
out  of  seven,  but  one  of  the  judges  after  signing  left  the 
state  before  the  others  had  signed  the  order.  In  extenu- 
ation of  its  own  conscious  wrong-doing  the  court  pleads 
precedent;  that  is,  because  it  has  been  breaking  the  law 
systematically  for  a  period  of  twenty  years,  ipso  facto  it  is 
law  established  by  precedent. 

The  people  were  greatly  incensed.  In  the  absence  of 
a  law  for  recall  of  judges  the  legislature  took  steps  for 
impeachment,  but  was  finally  persuaded  to  let  the  matter 
drop  upon  the  prompt  revocation  of  the  Ruef  order  for 
a  rehearing. 

This  affair  had  scarcely  blown  over  before  this  same 
judicial  bench  found  itself  in  a  still  more  questionable 
attitude  before  the  people.  In  a  suit  at  Los  Angeles  rela- 
tive to  the  irrigation  system  of  Imperial  valley  in  which 
the  Southern  Pacific  railway  was  interested,  among  some 
documents  offered  in  evidence  a  letter  was  found  purport- 
ing to  have  come  direct  from  the  chief  attorney  of  the 
railway  and  directed  to  the  head  of  the  railway  corps  of 
attorneys  at  Los  Angeles,  in  which  was  the  following 
clause : 

"The  supreme  justices  in  conversation  with  me  to-day 
all  seemed  to  be  of  the  opinion  that  this  paragraph  should 


514  RETROSPECTION 

be  amended  so  as  to  state  the  facts,  as  required  under 
the  decision  in  the  case  of  the  Bank  of  Woodland  versus 
Stevens,  144  Cal.,  page  660,  and  to  have  an  order  made 
reappointing  the  receiver.  It  was  suggested  that  if  this 
could  be  done  between  now  and  Monday  it  would  be  an 
answer  to  the  application." 

Which  signified  that  the  attorney  for  the  Southern 
Pacific  company  was  obtaining  advice  from  the  supreme 
court  before  trial  as  to  how  a  legal  difficulty  might  be 
overcome  in  a  matter  yet  to  be  brought  before  them. 

Of  course  there  were  general  denials  all  round.  The 
justices  swore  they  had  never  given  such  advice.  The 
chief  attorney  swore  he  had  never  written  such  a  letter, 
but  that  a  clerk  did  it.  Finally  a  scapegoat  was  found 
who  acknowledged  he  had  written  the  letter  in  a  moment 
of  mental  aberration  but  that  there  was  no  truth  in  it. 

It  was  a  paltry  trick  for  such  mighty  potentates  to 
play,  as  if  they  expected  to  find  people  so  simple  as  to 
believe  them,  whether  supreme  justice,  lawyer,  or  clerk. 
After  that  there  was  little  opposition,  even  among  the 
legal  lights,  to  the  measure  for  the  recall  of  judges  in 
California. 

The  appellate  tribunals  were  high  courts  of  techni- 
calities. None  of  these  men,  bribers  or  bribed,  appealed 
for  law  or  justice;  their  appeals  were  to  the  tricks 
and  hair-splittings  in  which  these  judges  seemed  to  take 
their  greatest  delight,  and  in  which  they  assuredly  were 
adepts. 

In  all  this  I  would  not  be  misunderstood.  I  am  neither 
socialist  nor  idealist.  I  have  a  profound  respect  for  the 
law, — when  it  is  respectable.  I  obey  the  law  whether  or 
not  it  is  respectable;  I  find  it  easier  to  do  so.  I  employ 
lawyers  when  pinched  by  the  wicked.  I  have  even  a  son, 
law  graduate  of  Harvard,  in  full  and  honorable  practice; 
law  being  such  an  intricate  and  mystifying  force  I  find 
it  convenient  having  a  lawyer  in  the  family. 

Americans  respect  the  law;  they  entertain  a  high  re- 


GLORIA    IN   EXCELSIS  515 

gard  for  justice,  and  are  impressed  with  the  time-honored 
formalities  of  civilized  courts  of  justice.  He  must  be  a 
bad  man  indeed  who  should  compel  a  long-suffering  people 
to  rise  up  and  thrust  him  out;  no  judge  in  the  United 
States  need  ever  fear  being  unbenched  except  for  sufficient 
cause. 

The  profession  are  governed  in  their  opinion  largely  by 
policy.  To  antagonize  the  judiciary  by  advocating  the 
application  of  the  recall  to  judges  would  throw  many  of 
the  ablest  lawyers  out  of  business.  Hence  the  argument 
of  a  judge,  or  of  an  attorney,  or  of  a  newspaper  whose 
proprietor  has  a  case  in  hearing  before  the  supreme  court 
carries  but  little  weight. 

Naturally  the  lawyer  extols  the  profession  by  which 
he  lives.  He  extols  the  judges  who  decide  cases  for  or 
against  him.  As  the  Chinese  placate  the  devil  by  sounding 
his  praises,  he  extols  the  American  methods  and  the  effi- 
ciency of  American  courts,  asserting  their  superiority  even 
to  English  courts.  There  are  always  some  among  them, 
however,  with  courage  enough  to  tell  the  truth  and  take 
the  consequences. 

Officials  of  the  law  courts  are  obliged  to  regard  them 
as  sacred,  otherwise  some  of  them  might  be  found  exceed- 
ingly profane.  There  are  perhaps  no  public  officials  where 
the  recall  is  more  needed,  none  where  it  will  produce  a 
more  beneficial  effect  than  in  its  application  to  the 
judiciary. 

Said  Charles  Francis  Adams,  "To  hear  some  people 
denounce  the  recall  of  the  judiciary  one  would  think 
that  our  judges  were  sent  direct  from  heaven  and  are 
infallible." 

They  talk  of  protecting  the  judges  from  the  people, 
but  what  is  to  protect  the  people  from  the  judges?  The 
judges  should  be  protected  against  the  resentment  of  a 
misguided  populace,  but  should  not  the  people  be  pro- 
tected against  the  resentment  of  misguided  judges? 

As  it  is  possible  for  the  judge  to  do  the  greatest  harm 


516  RETROSPECTION 

in  the  shortest  time,  so  the  people  need  protection  from 
their  judges  more  than  from  any  other  class  of  officials. 

Without  the  recall  for  judges  the  punishment  of  high 
crime  throughout  the  United  States  would  be  small  indeed. 
For  awakening  the  public  conscience  we  thank  God  and 
Theodore  Roosevelt.  But  millionaire  litigants  have  no 
conscience,  and  their  influence  over  courts  of  law  and 
supreme  judges  is  often  overpowering. 

After  all  has  been  said,  we  have  only  to  look  at  the 
courts  themselves  and  consider  their  attitude.  Leaving 
out  the  United  States  courts,  where  the  appointments  are 
for  life,  no  one  can  deny  that  the  higher  elective  state 
courts  throughout  the  union  during  the  last  half  century 
have  been  largely  dominated  by  capital  if  not  under  direct 
influence  of  corporate  graft  and  greed. 

Whenever  justice  in  the  courts  of  justice  miscarries, 
defeated  by  the  letter  of  the  law,  the  judge,  exponent  of 
the  law  and  justice,  becomes  mummified  at  a  time  when 
honesty  and  a  clear  intellect  are  most  needed.  He  admits 
his  inability  to  act  as  a  reasonable  creature,  and  pleads 
as  an  excuse  the  machine  that  men  have  made  to  hold 
him  fast.  A  truly  pitiable  object,  a  person  pledged  to  do 
right  but  forced  to  do  wrong,  sworn  to  execute  justice 
but  constrained  to  acts  of  injustice. 

And  for  all  the  one  cry  of  fanaticism,  It  is  the  law, 
the  law;  behold  the  car  of  Juggernaut  cometh  to  crush 
all  who  trifle  with  the  law! 

Suppose  we  blot  out  all  laws  and  precedents,  and  write 
the  book  of  statutes  anew,  beginning,  Herein  are  the  rules 
of  proceedings  for  securing  the  ends  of  justice;  in  so  far 
as  any  one  of  them  fails  in  or  tends  to  defeat  its  purpose 
it  is  null.  Then  let  the  judge  come  out  of  his  shell  and 
determine  cases,  and  if  he  is  incompetent  let  him  be  re- 
called and  another  put  in  his  place. 

The  human  understanding  is  rather  an  unreliable 
quantity.  It  has  a  way  of  failing  us  when  least  expected 
and  when  its  support  is  most  needed.  Native  ability, 


GLORIA    IN    EXCELSIS  517 

breadth  and  depth  of  intellect,  profound  learning  seem 
to  make  little  difference  in  reaching  uniformity  or  in- 
fallibility. The  opinion  of  the  veriest  clod  is  worth  as 
much  as  that  of  the  ablest  divine  in  matters  concerning 
which  neither  can  know  anything.  This  is  strikingly  ap- 
parent in  whatever  relates  to  law  and  law  courts,  the 
outcome  of  litigation  is  proverbially  uncertain.  The 
ablest  lawyer  expounding  to  the  learned  judge  has  no 
more  assurance  as  to  the  result  than  has  the  humbler  prac- 
titioner before  a  justice  of  the  peace. 

Why  is  it  that  the  most  profound  doctors  of  jurispru- 
dence who  sit  on  the  United  States  supreme  bench  so 
seldom  agree,  all  of  them,  on  any  one  point?  That  the 
plainly  written  law  is  before  them,  and  the  brightest  legal 
talent  present  to  argue  both  sides  of  the  question,  makes 
no  difference.  Their  minds  are  differently  constructed, 
their  understanding  is  cast  in  different  molds.  Were  the 
whole  bench  to  sit  as  jurors  through  a  term  of  the  superior 
court,  they  would  agree  in  a  verdict  no  of tener  than  do  the 
blockheads  usually  picked  up  about  town  for  that  purpose. 

Recognizing  these  facts  we  can  the  better  understand 
the  strange  diversity  of  opinion  regarding  the  recall  of 
judges  which  has  occupied  the  public  mind  so  much  of 
late. 

We  are  too  apt  to  regard  government  as  an  entity  out- 
side of  us  instead  of  an  essence  within.  The  thing  at 
Washington  is  a  great  bogey  to  be  placated  and  prayed 
to,  if  we  have  need  of  it,  rather  than  a  congregation  of 
men  not  too  righteous,  not  too  patriotic,  or  unselfish,  not 
overburdened  with  honesty  or  integrity,  but  just  common 
clay  like  ourselves,  too  common  many  of  them,  politicians 
for  the  most  part  who  have  wormed  themselves  into  office, 
and  whose  chief  concern  is,  not  their  country  and  its  needs, 
but  themselves,  that  having  tasted  power  how  they  may 
keep  it,  and  so  struggle  on  until  thrust  aside  by  others 
like  them. 

So  with  regard  to  law  and  justice,  one  is  set  up  as  an 


518  RETROSPECTION 

» 

individual  entity  apart  from  the  other  when  they  are  or 
should  be  correlate  forces. 

Every  religion  claims  for  its  supreme  deity  an  abso- 
lutely just  God,  not  a  law-abiding  God,  nor  a  God  expert 
in  splitting  hairs  or  finding  effective  technicalities.  If  our 
supreme  judges  would  make  good  their  claim  to  something 
sacred  or  exceptional  in  their  desired  independence  of  the 
people,  if  they  would  set  themselves  up  as  deity  let  them 
play  the  part  of  deity  with  some  show  of  reason. 

What  shall  we  say  of  the  infallibility  of  courts  or  the 
value  of  high-grade  opinions  when  the  ablest  statesmen 
so  often  disagree;  when  the  learned  \vorld  denounced  the 
political  doctrines  of  Washington,  Hamilton,  and  Jefferson 
as  unsound,  misleading,  and  dangerous;  when  all  New 
England  opposed  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  by  Jefferson 
and  all  America  ridiculed  the  purchase  of  Alaska  by 
Seward.  Thus  we  may  know  what  value  to  place  upon 
Chancellor  Day's  eulogy  of  Rockefeller,  Governor  Penny- 
packer's  tribute  to  Quay,  and  the  high  esteem  of  William 
Cromwell,  friend  of  Taft  and  Ballinger  and  Wickersham, 
for  E.  H.  Harriman,  declaiming  in  court,  with  all  due 
soberness,  that  he  moved  rightly  in  a  sphere  above  the 
law  applicable  to  ordinary  men! 

What  does  recall  accomplish?  It  extracts  the  fangs 
from  venomous  officials ;  it  leaves  political  power  where 
it  belongs,  in  the  hands  of  the  people ;  it  liberates  the  land 
from  the  control  of  corporations;  it  puts  an  end  to  the 
pretty  game  of  law-made  monte,  three  cards  with  the 
joker,  corporate  capital  makes  the  legislature,  the  legisla- 
ture makes  the  laws,  corporate  capital  makes  the  judge, 
the  judge  construes  the  law,  now  where  is  the  joker? 
There  is  no  joker;  there  is  no  joke;  it  all  means  hard 
cash. 

Why  such  vast  display  of  learned  imbecility  ?  Twenty 
years  ago  the  automobile  was  a  wonderful  piece  of  mechan- 
ism, yet  since  that  time  its  efficiency  and  safety  has  in- 
creased tenfold.  Three  hundred  or  three  thousand  years 


GLORIA    IN    EXCELSIS  519 

ago  laws  were  set  up  for  the  regulation  of  mankind,  yet 
worse  than  ever  to-day  an  army  of  lawyers  and  judges  are 
beating  the  air  and  shouting  nonsense  instead  of  simply 
hanging  murderers  and  putting  thieves  in  prison. 

There  was  once  a  little  boy,  a  very  little  boy,  he  could 
but  just  walk,  who  on  coming  to  a  thin  sheet  of  note  paper 
lying  flat  on  the  floor  lifted  high  his  foot  to  step  over  it.  It 
seemed  to  him  three  feet  high  with  no  way  around  it.  But 
it  was  only  a  baby;  not  at  all  like  a  judge  who  can  gen- 
erally manage  to  step  over  a  sheet  of  note  paper  even  with 
a  law  written  on  it. 

Why  this  outcry  against  intimidation?  Intimidation  is 
one  of  the  essentials  of  government,  it  lies  at  the  founda- 
tion of  all  rule.  It  has  been  used  ever  since  the  great 
intimidation  from  Sinai. 

A  wise  sovereign  inherited  a  bad  government  in  which 
justice  was  unknown.  He  chose  the  best  men  for  judges 
and  told  them,  not  that  they  would  be  recalled  if  they  did 
not  judge  promptly  and  righteously,  but  that  they  would 
be  hanged. 

In  the  days  of  trial  by  combat  a  court  of  law  was  a  court 
of  justice,  for  the  winner  was  the  embodiment  of  positive 
right.  Solomon's  was  a  court  of  justice,  Abraham's  was 
not  long  enough  in  session  to  determine;  if  he  obeyed  the 
voice  and  killed  his  son  it  was  a  court  of  law,  if  he  refused 
to  do  so  it  was  a  court  of  justice.  In  the  English  courts, 
in  the  main  justice  governs;  in  American  courts,  in  the 
main,  law  governs. 

Scarcely  was  Ruef  in  prison  with  only  a  portion  spent 
of  the  million  more  or  less  stolen  from  the  people  before 
silly  sentimentalists  began  to  talk  of  his  release,  "What 
chance  of  reform  had  he  within  prison  walls?"  Mr.  Ruef 
is  not  the  kind  that  reforms.  "He  could  be  more  useful 
outside. ' '  So  might  the  other  prisoners ;  why  should  he,  the 
brightest  villain  of  them  all,  be  set  at  liberty,  and  not  the 
others?  Or  should  we  have  a  general  jail  delivery? 

So  disgusted  were  all  classes  and  coteries  with  McCarthy 


520  RETROSPECTION 

that  James  Rolph,  Jr.,  was  elected  his  successor  at  the 
primary  in  1911,  without  the  trouble  of  again  appearing 
at  the  general  election.  Mayor  Rolph  has  the  confidence 
of  the  entire  community,  there  is  no  one  in  San  Francisco 
more  popular,  and  no  one  can  better  reconcile  conflicting 
classes  or  do  the  city's  honors  during  the  exposition.  In- 
deed the  transformation  from  darkness  to  light  in  scores 
of  ways  has  been  bewilderingly  sudden  and  great.  Even 
while  the  standard  of  morals  was  changing  for  the  worse, 
standards  of  men  were  changing  for  the  better. 

Hiram  Johnson  possesses  this  one  qualification,  besides 
many  others,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  particularly  when 
found  in  the  chief  magistrate  of  a  great  state.  A  matter  of 
vital  importance  he  gets  up  and  attends  to  himself,  instead 
of  passing  it  over  to  others  less  interested,  or  less  efficient. 
To  overthrow  the  octopus  he  travelled  and  wrote  and  spoke 
until  it  was  done.  In  other  like  important  cases  he  did 
the  same. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  single  achievement  of  his  adminis- 
tration was  the  passage  of  the  public  utilities  bill,  by 
which  the  railroad,  steamship,  express,  telephone,  and  tele- 
graph companies,  and  practically  all  other  public  utilities 
are  put  under  a  commission,  which  has  the  absolute  power, 
not  only  of  fixing  the  rates,  but  of  controlling  all  their 
stock  and  bond  issues,  extensions  of  tracks  or  lines,  and 
any  other  use  or  misuse  of  their  properties  or  franchises. 

In  order  to  have  this  bill  passed,  it  was  necessary  to 
amend  the  state  constitution.  As  usual  with  him  the 
governor  made  a  personal  canvass  from  one  end  of  the 
state  to  the  other,  speaking  in  behalf  of  this  amendment 
and  of  those  providing  for  the  initiative  referendum 
and  recall,  all  of  which  were  carried  by  overwhelming 
majorities. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

SIGNIFICANCE    OP    THE    PANAMA    CANAL 

"TJIOUR  hundred  years  ago  the  isthmus  of  Darien,  or 
P  Panama,  was  the  pivotal  point  upon  which  turned  the 
commerce  of  the  world.  The  camel  caravans  overland  from 
India  were  discontinued,  and  the  Mediterranean  and  Zuyder 
Zee  lost  their  supremacy  in  the  oriental  traffic  with  western 
Europe,  while  the  Manila  galleons  brought  across  the 
Pacific  the  rich  merchandise  of  Fair  Cathay  to  Panama, 
until  pestilence  and  the  pirates  drove  them  away  to 
Acapulco. 

Before  the  railway  was  the  pathway,  three  hundred 
years  old  under  the  auspices  of  the  Spaniard  and  his  mule, 
three  thousand  years  old  for  aught  we  know  under  the 
aboriginal  regime;  and  as  the  mule-trail  influenced  the 
railway,  so  the  railway  determined  the  destiny  of  the  canal. 
They  were  a  unique  feature  in  their  day,  Panama  and  the 
mule  and  the  trail. 

The  city  then  was  the  metropolitan  port  of  the  two 
Americas.  There  was  nothing  like  it  elsewhere  in  the 
world.  Into  it  poured  the  wealth  of  the  Pacific,  of  which 
it  was  the  gateway,  thence  to  be  transported  on  mules  to 
Portobello  or  Nombre  de  Dios  and  shipped  on  galleons  for 
Spain.  Returning,  the  products  of  the  old  world  were 
brought  and  distributed  around  the  Pacific ;  so  that  on  the 
streets  and  in  the  ware-rooms  might  always  be  seen  piles 
of  goods  from  Europe,  rich  stuffs  and  spices  from  Asia, 
white  and  yellow  ingots  from  Peru,  cochineal  and  dye- 
woods  from  Mexico,  pearls  from  the  islands  and  pelts  from 
distant  parts.  In  the  plaza  was  a  booth  which  served  as  a 

621 


522  RETROSPECTION 

slave  market,  where  Indians  and  negroes  were  sold  by 
auction. 

The  merchants  were  princes,  and  the  city  was  the  royal 
depot  for  the  Indies.  The  spoils  of  the  natives  passed  that 
way.  Atahualpa  's  gold  and  Huascar  's  silver.  The  plunder 
of  pirates  often  found  lodgment  there,  while  the  city  offered 
constant  allurements  to  freebooters  and  buccaneers.  On 
the  trail  between  these  favored  ports  was  ever  heard  the 
noise  of  traffic,  the  jingling  bells  of  the  caparisoned  mules 
in  gay  trappings  guarded  by  fusileers,  and  the  shouts  of 
vaqueros  as  they  lashed  on  their  beasts,  staggering  under 
their  loads  of  precious  merchandise,  gold  and  silver  and 
spices  going  east,  and  cloths  cotton  and  leather  goods  west- 
ward bound. 

On  the  beach  at  Panama  were  strewed  bales  of  silks  and 
boxes  of  tea  and  lacquered  work  from  Asia,  furs  from  the 
north  and  fruits  from  the  south,  while  at  Nombre  de  Dios 
were  housed  the  factory  outputs  of  western  Europe  and 
eastern  America.  On  the  streets  and  along  the  roadways 
were  structures  of  various  sorts  filled  with  mixed  mer- 
chandise, with  columns  of  Potosi  silver  bars  stacked  upon 
the  floor. 

At  anchor  on  either  side  of  this  important  pest-hole 
were  ships  from  many  ports,  on  the  northern  side  from 
Europe  and  the  West  Indies,  and  the  Atlantic  seaboard  of 
America,  and  on  the  southern  side  vessels  from  Pacific 
ports  and  the  Far  East. 

A  place  of  romance  and  blind  adventure  as  well,  this 
Isthmus,  where  were  launched  reckless  fleets  on  unknown 
seas  for  unknown  realms.  For  two  hundred  years  Panama 
thus  flourished  until  the  Spanish  king,  partly  for  the  up- 
building of  Vera  Cruz,  as  well  as  by  reason  of  the  pirates 
at  Panama,  ordered  the  Manila  galleons  to  make  Acapulco 
their  Pacific  port. 

Thus  the  past  is  brought  before  us  as  we  see  the  mule- 
trails  dug  away,  and  in  their  place  a  great  waterway  unit- 
ing the  two  oceans  and  filled  with  mighty  ships,  vessels  of 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    523 

peace  and  war,  laden,  some  with  death-dealing  implements, 
some  with  gay  pleasure-seekers,  and  others  with  the  inter- 
changeable products  of  civilization.  And  the  question 
comes  to  us,  Are  the  tinselled  glories  of  the  past  now  to  be 
renewed  in  more  enduring  form?  Is  a  new  world  to  be 
born  in  this  twentieth  century  from  the  New  World  of  the 
sixteenth  century?  Are  we  to  find  in  this  American 
Netherland  real  romance  in  place  of  ignes  f  atui,  reasonable 
faith  instead  of  dank  superstition,  and  solid  substantial 
progress  in  lieu  of  inordinate  self-seeking  and  greed? 

For  verily  the  dream  of  Columbus  is  at  last  fulfilled, 
and  ships  from  Europe  and  the  Mediterranean  may  now 
sail  west  almost  in  a  straight  line  direct  to  the  India  of 
Marco  Polo. 

With  any  important  occurrence  affecting  the  welfare  of 
humanity  questions  naturally  arise  as  to  its  purpose  and 
probable  accomplishment.  What  then  does  it  mean,  this 
opening  a  passage  for  ships  between  the  two  oceans  ?  Some- 
thing more,  surely,  than  the  convenience  of  vessels  and  the 
gathering  of  tolls. 

To  him  who  wills  to  accomplish,  this  waterway  means 
much.  It  means  much  that  we  can  fathom  and  more  that 
we  cannot  fathom.  To  see  the  full  significance  of  this 
work  we  must  adjust  our  eyes  to  a  new  perspective;  to 
fathom  its  meaning  we  must  descend  to  profounder  depths 
than  have  yet  been  reached  by  line  and  plummet. 

It  signifies  an  enlargement  of  vision,  a  new  creation,  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  a  new  civilization,  new  arti- 
sans and  artists,  new  poets  and  philosophers.  It  means  an 
awakening  of  the  economic  world,  a  buckling  on  of  armor 
for  achievement  that  should  put  to  blush  the  efforts  of  war- 
riors on  bloody  battlefields. 

It  means  if  we  are  wise,  introspection  and  self-analysis, 
taking  stock  and  measurement  of  our  opportunities  and 
capabilities,  a  re-creation  and  re-adjustment  of  ourselves 
to  meet  new  conditions. 


524  RETROSPECTION 

Situated  in  the  heart  of  the  tropics,  its  effect  on  the 
tropical  lands  and  their  people  will  be  pronounced.  For 
the  tropics,  in  common  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  will  be 
controlled  by  white  men,  though  worked  by  black  and 
yellow  labor. 

It  will  change  trade  routes,  open  new  pathways  and 
establish  new  and  enlarged  centres  of  industrialism.  The 
world's  traffic,  at  first  from  India  overland  to  northern 
Europe,  from  the  Mediterranean  out  into  the  ocean  along 
the  coasts  of  Africa  and  Europe,  then  straight  west  across 
the  Atlantic,  across  the  continent,  across  the  Pacific,  where 
equatorial  trade. winds  and  other  influences  hold  sway,  will 
now  converge  from  every  quarter  of  the  two  great  oceans 
to  this  waterway,  which  will  thus  become  a  new  industrial 
centre  round  which  the  world's  commerce  will  revolve. 

It  will  map  the  Pacific  anew  and  determine  the  destinies 
of  cities  and  states. 

It  will  expand  and  make  practical  theoretical  science. 

It  will  discourage  war  and  promote  the  fraternalism  of 
nations. 

As  a  military  asset,  guarding  both  sides  of  our  country, 
it  is  of  the  first  importance. 

It  will  double  the  effectiveness  of  our  navy,  and  save 
its  cost  in  building  useless  battle-ships,  which  are  obsolete 
almost  before  they  are  finished. 

It  will  strengthen  the  Monroe  doctrine  and  make  its 
maintenance  more  necessary  than  ever. 

As  regards  education  and  intellectual  development,  the 
tendency  will  be  to  bring  Europe  west  and  establish  a  new 
civilization  upon  the  shores  of  the  Pacific. 

Its  effect  on  language  will  be  to  increase  and  extend  the 
speaking  of  English,  so  that  English  will  become  more  than 
ever  the  language  of  commerce  and  government,  if  not  of 
diplomacy  and  society.  And  here  as  in  its  ethnic  influence 
the  tendency  will  be  to  extend  the  power  and  supremacy  of 
English-speaking  peoples,  as  well  as  of  their  language,  the 
world  over. 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA    CANAL    525 

It  means  a  larger  America  and  a  smaller  world;  a 
stronger  and  wealthier  America,  and  a  less  potential  Europe 
and  Africa.  It  signifies  also  a  taking  possession,  not  politi- 
cally but  economically,  a  taking  possession  either  by  our- 
selves or  others  as  we  shall  elect ;  for  all  around  this  watery 
amphitheatre  are  mighty  nations  in  embryo,  nations  now 
half  civilized  or  a  quarter  civilized,  but  with  native  wealth 
and  potentialities  illimitable,  inconceivable. 

To  him  who  wills  nothing  and  does  nothing  the  Panama 
canal  has  no  significance. 

The  economic  energy  of  the  world  is  here  liberated, 
but  the  Panama  canal  has  no  significance  to  him  who  will 
not  respond  to  its  inspirations;  to  him  who  will  not  throw 
oft*  inertia  and  timidity  and  go  forth  to  achieve;  who  will 
not  study,  and  invent,  and  develop ;  who  will  not  work,  and 
make,  and  sell. 

To  the  city  with  but  meagre  manufactures,  or  which 
for  any  reason  cannot  successfully  compete  with  the  world 's 
industrial  centres,  the  Panama  canal  has  small  significance. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe,  in  glancing  over  the  three 
or  four  centuries  of  West  Coast  history,  how  all  along  the 
line  the  thoughts  and  efforts  were  ever  present  to  find  or 
make  a  way  through  or  around  the  two  Americas.  And 
what  immediately  followed  were  scores  of  mythical  straits 
with  corresponding  conjectural  geography. 

The  primary  impulse  of  the  Spaniards  on  finding  land 
as  they  sailed  westward  was  to  get  through  or  around  it. 
And  the  more  it  baffled  their  efforts  as  they  crept  along  the 
border  to  the  north  and  to  the  south,  the  more  eager  were 
they  to  overcome  or  circumvent  the  obstacle  that  impeded 
their  progress.  For  if  this  were  India,  this  low-lying  strip 
of  jungle-covered  sand,  peopled  by  copper-hued  creatures 
dwelling  in  huts  and  sustaining  life  by  the  natural  products 
of  the  unkempt  earth,  it  was  not  the  India  they  sought ;  it 
was  not  the  India  of  Mandeville  and  Marco  Polo,  where 
thousands  of  cities  were  scattered  over  fertile  provinces 


526  RETROSPECTION 

fragrant  with  fruit  and  spices,  and  whose  palaces  with 
pillars  and  roofs  emblazoned  in  gold  glittered  beneath  the 
sun ;  and  where  were  rivers  and  canals  spanned  by  bridges 
under  which  the  largest  ships  might  sail,  and  lakes  bor- 
dered by  gardens  and  luxurious  groves  on  whose  placid 
waters  floated  pleasure  boats  and  banqueting  barges. 

' '  These  are  but  the  outlying  islands  of  Cathay, ' '  mused 
the  great  discoverer  as  cruising  through  the  Bahamas  he 
came  upon  Cuba,  which  was  Zipangu.  He  had  his  bear- 
ings now.  All  this  was  Polo 's  archipelago,  and  if  the  larger 
land  were  not  Cathay  the  Asiatic  main  could  not  be  far  dis- 
tant, and  there  he  should  find  some  strait  or  passage  to 
the.  more  central  realms  of  the  Grand  Khan,  to  whom  he 
would  present  his  credentials.  Later,  as  he  lay  ill  on  the 
deck  of  his  vessel  off  Colon,  so  called  by  Fernando,  son  and 
companion  of  Christopher,  "Nine  days'  journey  across  the 
mountains,"  he  said,  "is  Ciguare,  and  ten  days  from  Cigu- 
are  must  lie  the  river  Ganges."  And  so,  lost  in  the  mazes 
of  mysticism  he  went  down  to  his  death,  much  befogged  as 
to  the  world  he  had  so  aided  in  bringing  to  the  light  of 
others. 

Ardently  desired  by  all  interested  in  New  World  affairs, 
by  the  sovereigns  and  statesmen  of  Europe  as  well  as  by 
the  sailors  and  adventurers  to  America,  the  early  impres- 
sions of  the  existence  of  one  or  many  passage-ways  among 
the  islands  and  through  the  main  land  to  India  became  so 
strong  as  to  amount  to  certainty,  the  unauthenticated  tales 
of  mariners,  romancing  about  their  efforts  and  successes, 
being  easier  of  credence  than  plain  evidence  of  what  they 
did  not  wish  to  be  true.  Soon  all  about  these  waters  were 
bewildered  sailors  bent  on  investigation.  On  the  coast  of 
the  tropical  mainland  in  1499,  appeared  Alonso  de  Ojeda, 
in  whose  company  were  Juan  de  la  Cosa  and  Amerigo  Ves- 
pucci. These  were  followed  by  Lepe  and  Pinzon,  by  Rod- 
rigo  de  Bastidas  in  1501,  and  by  Coelho  and  Solis  in  1503 
and  1506  respectively. 

Prom  Cuba  came  many,  Yasco  Nunez  de  Balboa  to 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    527 

Darien,  Hernan  Cortes  to  Mexico,  Francisco  Pizarro  to 
Panama  and  Peru.  All  were  for  plunder  and  proselyting ; 
but  most  of  those  who  came  direct  from  Spain  were  licensed 
to  trade,  having  in  mind  also  the  gorgeous  wealth«of  Cathay, 
so  near  and  yet  so  elusive.  Indeed,  for  the  first  half- 
century  following  discovery  there  were  few  if  any  voyages 
to  America  whose  object  was  not,  among  others,  to  find  a 
waterway  to  India. 

Meanwhile  England  was  not  idle.  Following  the  play 
of  northern  lights  on  the  western  horizon  for  four  or  five 
centuries,  lapsing  into  obscurity  upon  the  decline  of  Scan- 
dinavian discovery,  appeared  up  Labrador  way  and  at  the 
St.  Lawrence  in  1497-98  the  Cabots,  like  the  others  warm 
on  their  way  to  India. 

Said  Sebastian:  "Understanding  by  reason  of  the 
Sphere  that  if  I  should  saile  by  way  of  the  Northwest  I 
should  by  a  shorter  route  come  into  India  .  .  .  not 
thinking  to  finde  any  other  land  than  that  of  Cathay,  and 
from  thence  to  turne  toward  India,  but  after  certaine  dayes 
I  found  that  the  land  ranne  towards  the  north,  which  was 
to  mee  a  great  displeasure. ' ' 

Ramusio,  to  whom  he  wrote,  reports  that  in  latitude 
67°  30'  "Finding  still  the  open  Sea  without  any  manner 
of  impediment,  hee  thought  verily  by  that  way  to  have 
passed  on  still  the  way  to  Cathaio,  which  is  in  the  East,  and 
woulde  have  done  it,  if  the  mutinie  of  the  shipmaster  and 
marriners  had  not  rebelled.'*  There  was  no  doubt  at  that 
time  in  the  minds  of  all  that  Cabot  had  reached  Asia,  or 
later  that  he  had  found  a  strait. 

After  the  Cabots  came  the  Cortereals,  penetrating  yet 
farther  northward,  while  Aillon,  Verrazano,  and  Estevan 
Gomez  extended  the  search  coastwise  to  Carolina,  and  on 
to  Florida.  It  was  a  passage,  rather  than  a  strait,  that  the 
Cabots  and  the  Cortereals  expected  to  find  in  the  far  north, 
as,  like  Columbus,  they  fancied  themselves  already  on  the 
coast  of  Asia. 

As  exploration  progressed,  rumors  arose  on  every  side 


528  RETROSPECTION 

of  waterways  westward.  Among  them  one  called  the  strait 
of  Anian  may  justly  claim  precedence,  not  only  by  reason 
of  its  alleged  size  and  influence,  but  also  for  its  romance 
and  longevity.  It  is  almost  incredible  of  belief  at  this  day, 
but  the  fact  remains  that  for  over  two  centuries  there  floated 
through  the  minds  of  men,  cosmographers,  mariners,  and 
map-makers,  statesmen  and  scholars,  a  fancy,  or  firm  con- 
viction in  many  cases,  of  the  existence  of  a  great  waterway 
opening  broadly  from  the  Pacific  and  from  the  Atlantic, 
banked  on  either  side  by  grassy  slopes  and  flowery  king- 
doms, with  forests  intervening,  and  manifold  wonders,  and 
through  which  fleets  might  pass  without  hindrance.  It 
was  situated  in  about  the  middle  of  the  continent  of  North 
America,  and  extended  from  sea  to  sea,  say  from  the  St. 
Lawrence  to  Puget  sound,  vibrating  between  the  great 
lakes  and  Hudson  bay,  and  winding  about  throughout  the 
land,  deflecting  north,  sometimes  south,  as  the  fancy  of 
the  narrators  might  dictate. 

Of  this  hallucination,  and  the  name,  John  Cortereal  is 
accredited  by  some  the  innocent  cause;  others  refer  to  an 
ancient  hypothetical  province  of  Asia,  Ania,  which  province 
was  transferred  to  America  and  placed  beside  the  strait 
of  Anian  as  the  kingdom  of  Anian. 

"An  excellent  learned  man  of  Portingale,"  writes  Hak- 
luyt  in  1582,  "told  mee  very  lately  that  one  Anus  Cort- 
ereal,— Anus  being  a  form  of  loao,  loannes,  or  John — Cap- 
tayne  of  the  yle  of  Tercera,  about  the  yeere  1574,  which  is 
not  aboue  eight  yeeres  past,  sent  a  shippe  to  discouer  the 
Northwest  passage  of  America,  and  that  the  same  shippe 
arriuing  on  the  coast  of  the  saide  America,  in  fiftie  eyghte 
degrees  of  latitude,  founde  a  great  entrance,  exceeding 
deepe  and  broade,  without  all  impediment  of  ice,  into  which 
they  passed  aboue  twentie  leagues,  and  founde  it  alwaies 
to  trende  towarde  the  South,  the  lande  lying  lowe  and 
plaine  on  eyther  side;  and  they  perswaded  them  selues 
verely  that  there  was  a  way  open  into  the  south  sea." 

In  Divers  Voyages  is  a  prefatory  note  entitled,  "A  verie 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    529 

late  and  great  probabilitie  of  a  passage  by  the  north-west 
part  of  America  in  58  degrees  of  northerly  latitude. ' '  And 
again  Hakluyt  says:  "There  is  no  doubt  but  that  there  is 
a  straight  and  short  way  open  into  the  West,  euen  vnto 
Cathay;"  adding  finally,  "And  heere,  to  conclude  and  shut 
vp  this  matter,  I  have  hearde  my  selfe  of  Merchants  of 
credite  that  haue  liued  long  in  Spain,  that  King  Phillip 
hath  made  a  lawe  of  late  that  none  of  his  subjects  shall 
discouer  to  Northwardes  of  fiue  and  f ortie  degrees  of  Amer- 
ica," lest  the  strait  should  be  found  and  the  other  nations 
should  profit  thereby. 

Thus  came  upon  the  world  this  cosmographical  mystery, 
and  as  there  were  many  mysteries  then  prevalent  in  the 
New  World,  this  mystery  being  in  the  unknown  north  was 
called  the  Northern  Mystery.  Some  claimed  that  it  had 
been  brought  up  from  the  south,  and  that  it  was  in  fact 
no  other  than  the  strait  laid  down  between  South  America 
and  the  Asiatic  main. 

Imaginary  geography  being  then  in  vogue,  as  I  have 
explained  in  an  earlier  chapter  of  this  volume,  all  this  time 
various  straits  were  put  down  in  various  maps,  the  known 
being  supplemented  by  the  imaginary.  In  Ruysch's  map, 
1508,  and  on  Schoner's  globe  1520,  are  open  roadsteads  on 
either  side  of  the  Antilles  to  Asia. 

Ptolemy,  1530,  Ruscelli,  1544,  and  Ramusio,  1556,  have 
a  passage  round  the  northern  end  of  the  continent.  Oron- 
tius  Fine,  1531,  joins  Cathay  to  northwest  America,  and  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  there  were  no  less 
than  ten  maps  of  the  higher  class  with  Anian  strait,  and 
one,  Minister,  1545,  unblushingly  bearing  the  inscription 
"Per  hoz  fretuiter  patet  ad  Molucas."  There  was  some 
honest  authorship  in  all  this,  where  the  evidence  seemed 
sufficient,  yet  there  were  many  wild  statements  and  wilful 
misrepresentations,  so  that  maritime  mendacity  flourished 
under  conditions  favorable  to  endless  imaginings  and  the 
absence  of  facts  which  might  render  detection  dangerous. 

One  of  the  first  accounts  of  a  voyage  through  this  strait, 


530  RETROSPECTION 

and  which  will  serve  as  a  sample  of  the  many  others  that 
followed,  was  by  Pedro  Menendez,  prominent  in  the  an- 
nals of  Florida,  who  wrote,  "That  in  1554  he  had  brought 
from  New  Spain  a  man  who  claimed  to  have  been  on  a 
French  ship,  which  had  sailed  four  hundred  leagues  on  a 
brazo  de  mar  running  inland  from  Newfoundland  toward 
Florida.  The  ship's  crew  then  landed,  and  a  quarter  of  a 
league  distant  found  another  channel  on  which  they  built 
four  small  vessels,  and  sailed  an  additional  three  hundred 
leagues,  to  latitude  48°,  north  of  Mexico,  near  the  mines 
of  Zacatecas  and  San  Martin,  where  were  large  and  pros- 
perous settlements.  The  channel  led  to  the  South  sea,  to- 
ward China  and  the  Moluccas,  though  it  was  not  followed 
so  far." 

"This  said  streight,"  writes  Martin  Frobisher  regard- 
ing an  inlet  in  latitude  63°  8'  which  he  claims  to  have  en- 
tered, "is  supposed  to  have  passage  into  the  sea  of  Sur, 
which  I  leaue  unknown  as  yet.  It  seemeth  that  either  here, 
or  not  f  arre  hence,  the  sea  should  have  more  large  entrance 
than  in  other  parts  within  the  frozen  or  temperate  zone." 
Later  Frobisher  speaks  soberly  of  crossing  the  inlet  to  the 
east  shore,  "being  the  supposed  continent  of  Asia,"  and 
back  to  the  "supposed  firme  with  America." 

Another  note  for  the  map-makers  reads  as  follows:  "I, 
Thomas  Cowles,  of  Bedmester,  in  the  countie  of  Somerset, 
Marriner,  doe  acknowledge  that  six  yeares  past,  at  my 
being  at  Lisbon,  in  the  kingdome  of  Portugall,  I  did  heare 
one  Martin  Chacke,  a  Portugall  of  Lisbon,  reade  a  book  of 
his  owne  making,  which  he  had  set  out  six  yeares  before 
that  time,  in  Print,  in  the  Portugale  tongue,  declaring  that 
the  said  Martin  Chacke  had  f  ounde,  twelve  yeares  now  past, 
a  way  from  the  Portugall  Indies  through  a  gulf  of  the  New 
found  land,  which  he  thought  to  be  in  59  degrees  of  the 
eleuation  of  the  North  Pole.  By  means  that  hee  being  in 
the  said  Indies  with  foure  other  shippes  of  great  burden, 
and  he  himselfe  in  a  small  shippe  of  fourscore  tunnes,  was 
driuen  from  the  company  of  the  other  foure  Shippes  with 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    531 

a  Westerly  winde ;  after  which  hee  past  alongst  by  a  great 
number  of  Hands  which  were  in  the  gulfe  of  the  said  New 
found  Land.  And  after  hee  ouershot  the  gulfe  hee  set  no 
more  sight  of  any  other  Land  vntill  he  fell  with  the  North- 
west part  of  Ireland;  and  from  thence  he  tooke  his  course 
homewards,  and  by  that  meanes  hee  came  to  Lisbone  foure 
or  five  weekes  before  the  other  foure  Ship  of  his  company 
that  he  was  separated  from ;  as  before  said.  And  since  the 
same  time  I  could  neuer  see  any  of  those  Bookes  because  the 
King  commanded  them  to  be  called  in,  and  no  more  of  them 
to  be  printed,  lest  in  time  it  would  be  to  their  hindrance. 
In  witness  whereof  I  set  to  my  hand  and  marke,  the  ninth 
of  Aprill,  Anno  1579." 

Unfortunately  there  are  others  of  us  who  "could  neuer 
see  any  of  those  Bookes." 

Henry  Hudson  lost  his  life  exploring  Hudson  bay, 
seeking  an  outlet  to  the  west.  Robert  Thorne,  in  1527, 
urged  the  English  king  to  further  efforts  in  the  far  north, 
saying,  "Nowe,  then,  if  from  the  sayed  newe  founde  landes 
the  See  bee  Nauigable,  there  is  no  doubte  but  sayling  North- 
warde  and  passing  the  pole,  descending  to  the  equinoctiall 
lyne,  wee  shall  hitte  these  Ilandes,  and  it  should  bee  much 
more  shorter  way  than  eyther  the  Spaniardes  or  the  Porti- 
guals  haue. ' ' 

The  historian,  Gomara,  takes  the  liberty  of  transferring 
Coronado's  mythical  city  of  Quivira  from  the  northeast  -to 
the  northwest,  whence  "they  saw  on  the  coast  ships  which 
had  pelicans  of  gold  and  silver  on  their  prows,  with  mer- 
chandise that  they  thought  to  be  from  Cathay. ' ' 

Torquemada  writes :  ' '  It  is  understood  that  this  river  is 
the  one  that  leads  to  a  great  city  discovered  by  the  Dutch, 
and  that  is  the  strait  of  Anian,  by  which  the  ship  that 
found  it  passed  from  the  North  sea  to  the  South,  and  that 
without  mistake  in  this  region  is  the  city  of  Quivira." 
Juan  Fernandez  de  Ladrillero  placed  the  strait  800  leagues 
north  of  Compostela,  and  made  a  sworn  statement  to  that 
effect  in  Spain,  in  1584.  Jean  Nicolet,  when  sent  by  Cham- 


532  RETROSPECTION 

plain  to  visit  the  Winnipegs,  that  is  to  say  (Men  of  the 
Sea)  of  Cathay  as  was  supposed,  fancied  himself  within 
three  days  of  the  ocean. 

Juan  de  Fuca's  adventures  as  told  by  Michael  Lok  so 
late  as  1596,  ran  in  this  wise.  After  long  service  in  Spain 
as  sailor  and  pilot,  Fuca  found  himself  on  board  the  gal- 
leon Santa  Ana,  from  Manila,  when  captured  by  Cavendish 
above  Acapulco.  Fuca  lost  $60,000.  Then  he  went  as  pilot 
of  three  vessels  with  300  men  sent  by  the  viceroy  to  find 
and  fortify  against  the  English  the  strait  of  Anian,  but 
the  expedition  failed  owing  to  mutiny.  A  second  trial, 
however,  in  1596,  proved  successful.  He  followed  the  coast 
northward  to  latitude  47  degrees,  or  a  little  farther,  where 
he  found  an  opening  100  miles  wide  which  he  entered  and 
sailed  through  to  the  Atlantic,  and  returning  reported  the 
country  rich  in  gold,  silver,  and  pearls.  For  this  lie,  the 
name  of  Juan  de  Fuca  was  given  to  the  entrance  to  Puget 
sound,  a  higher  reward  than  many  a  better  man  has  re- 
ceived for  better  service. 

The  shores  of  the  Atlantic  were  little  known  when  ex- 
plored by  Columbus  and  the  Cabots,  the  Pacific  midst  all 
its  mysteries  remaining  still  longer  in  darkness,  and  yet  the 
potentialities  of  the  Pacific  as  compared  with  those  of  the 
Atlantic  at  the  period  of  its  early  exploitations  are  as  is 
the  Atlantic  to  the  Mediterranean. 

We  come  now  to  exploration  and  project  proper. 

When  in  1513  and  following  years  of  discoveries  it  be- 
came known  that  in  place  of  a  proximate  Asia  a  large  body 
of  water  intervened,  and  the  land  adjacent  to  the  islands 
first  discovered  spread  out  until  it  displayed  a  great  con- 
tinent, the  question  assumed  more  puzzling  proportions 
than  ever  how  ships  were  to  pass  the  barrier. 

Regarding  the  unknown  regions  speculation  continued, 
being  often  more  fascinating  than  established  fact ;  so  that 
the  mythical  and  the  actual  continued  their  course  side  by 
side,  curiosity  and  credulity  acting  and  reacting  on  each 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    533 

other  to  the  further  stimulating  of  exploration.  And  when 
at  length  the  truth  was  ascertained  that  a  long  line  of  sea- 
board was  there  before  the  impatient  adventurers,  un- 
broken by  any  natural  water-course,  the  thought  of  an 
artificial  opening  assumed  important  proportions. 

The  discovery  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  by  Vasco  Nunez  de 
Balboa  was  second  in  importance  only  to  the  original  dis- 
covery of  land  by  Columbus  twenty-one  years  before,  if, 
indeed,  it  were  second  to  any  other  event  whatever.  By 
it,  by  the  interposition  of  this  great  ocean  the  world  was  en- 
larged and  the  mind  of  the  world  enlightened.  This  vast 
expanse  of  water,  and  the  lands  and  habitations  around  it, 
were  a  clean  gain  to  the  globe  as  measured  by  the  calcula- 
tions of  the  Genoese. 

Vasco  Nunez  did  not  know  this,  or  it  might  have  mod- 
ified his  bombast  as  he  marched  into  the  water  with  loud 
acclaim  and  much  sword  shaking  and  took  possession  for 
the  king  of  Spain  of  all  that  sea,  of  all  its  islands  and  the 
firm  land  which  environed  it;  of  fields  and  cities;  of  its 
gold  and  silver  and  pearls;  of  its  beasts  and  birds  and 
fishes, — in  the  slang  of  to-day,  rather  a  large  order;  but  so 
Christian  kings  acquired  the  right  of  possession  to  heathen 
lands,  not  unlike  the  right  of  the  Bogota  government  to  the 
state  of  Panama. 

On  the  return  of  Balboa  from  this  first  expedition  of 
Europeans  across  America,  Juan  de  Ayora  was  sent  to 
establish  a  line  of  fortresses  between  the  two  seas,  but 
abandoned  the  work  for  plunder.  Antonio  Tello  de 
Guzman,  was  sent  to  continue  it  in  1515,  and  was  the 
first  Spaniard  to  reach  the  spot  called  by  the  natives 
panamd. 

This  same  year  ascent  was  made  by  Balboa  and  Luis 
Carrillo  of  the  river  Atrato,  subsequently  the  subject  of 
many  interoceanic  schemes,  the  purpose  at  this  time  being 
to  find  the  golden  temple  of  Dabaiba.  This  exploration  was 
continued  by  Juan  de  Tabira  and  Francisco  Pizarro  in 
three  brigantines,  which  they  built,  and  a  small  fleet  of 
18 


534  RETROSPECTION 

canoes,  the  first  river  navigation  in  American-built  ships 
in  America.  Ships  were  also  built — they  called  them  ships 
— by  Balboa,  from  material  prepared  on  the  eastern  slope, 
where  grew  the  best  timber  for  the  purpose,  and  carried 
across  the  mountains  on  the  backs  of  Indians,  to  the  head 
waters  of  what  they  named  the  Rio  de  las  Balsas,  or  River 
of  Rafts,  whence  the  constructed  vessels  were  floated  down 
to  the  ocean  and  used  by  Balboa  in  his  first  visit  to  the 
Pearl  islands.  A  thousand  lives  were  sacrificed — Las  Casas 
says  two  thousand — in  this  first  transportation  of  ships 
across  the  Isthmus. 

The  example  of  Balboa  was  followed  by  Gil  Gonzalez 
Davila,  who  dismantled  his  ships  on  the  Atlantic  sides, 
packed  up  sails,  cordage,  and  timbers,  transported  the  same 
to  the  Rio  Balsas,  and  there  constructed  and  launched  four 
vessels,  but  lost  them  all  before  reaching  the  mouth  of  the 
river.  Later  at  Nicaragua,  upon  the  discovery  of  the 
Freshwater  sea,  as  they  called  Lake  Nicaragua,  Francisco 
Hernandez  de  Cordova  took  apart  one  of  his  brigantines  on 
the  Pacific  coast  and  conveyed  the  pieces  across  the  moun- 
tains to  Lake  Nicaragua  for  explorations  there.  As  Ad- 
miral of  the  Freshwater  sea,  Gil  Gonzalez  made  a  futile 
attempt  to  find  a  strait  through  the  continent  at  that  point, 
his  investigations  being  from  the  Atlantic  side. 

Following  Portuguese  progress  as  step  by  step  the 
countrymen  of  Prince  Henry  and  Vasco  da  Gama  passed 
down  the  Brazilian  coast,  searching  estuaries  and  penetrat- 
ing far  into  the  interior  by  the  great  rivers,  in  1519  came 
Fernando  de  Magellan,  in  five  ships,  and  found  and  passed 
through  the  strait  which  bears  his  name,  the  only  inter- 
ocean  waterway  in  all  the  two  Americas.  Finding  and 
utilizing  this  strait  thus  easily,  on  the  most  direct  route, 
sailing  west  across  the  Pacific  to  the  Philippine  islands  and 
around  the  world,  had  no  doubt  a  strong  effect  upon  the 
imaginations  of  cosmographers  and  mariners,  in  grounding 
them  in  the  belief  of  the  existence  of  the  mythical  Anian. 
If  providence  had  given  man  for  his  use  so  fine  a  belt  of 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE   PANAMA   CANAL    535 

navigable  water  in  the  far  south,  why  should  there  not  be 
a  similar  one  in  the  far  north  ? 

Another  of  those  singular  circumstances  which  come  up 
now  and  then  in  the  history  of  discovery  may  be  here  men- 
tioned. It  so  happened  that  Magellan  saw  a  drawing  by 
one  of  these  mendacious  map-makers,  who  had  thrown  in  at 
random  open  water  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  land  beyond 
it,  which  lie  Magellan  found  true  as  he  sailed  through  his 
strait  with  land  near  on  either  side. 

In  like  manner  many  hints  had  been  given  to  Columbus 
before  he  sailed,  of  the  existence  of  land  to  the  westward. 
He  sailed  west  and  found  it.  Such  is  the  inspiration  of 
genius ! 

The  next  most  important  discovery  after  Magellan's 
strait  was  that  of  the  open  polar  sea  beyond  it.  This  did 
not  occur  until  a  century  later,  when  a  company  of  Dutch 
merchants,  who  thought  it  about  time  the  world  should 
know  whether  Tierra  del  Fuego  was  an  island  or  a  conti- 
nent, in  1615  sent  thither  the  ships  Endrach  and  Home,  of 
300  and  110  tons  respectively,  in  charge  of  Jacob  le  Maire 
and  Wilhelm  Schouten.  The  smaller  vessel  was  wrecked, 
and  her  name  given  to  the  sharp  point  round  which  a  ship 
now  first  sailed. 

Ever  present  in  the  mind  of  Charles  V  as  well  as  in  that 
of  his  son  Philip,  was  the  waterway,  natural  or  artificial, 
across  America,  which  should  be  the  highway  to  the  Spice 
islands  and  the  Indies.  As  to  the  practicability  of  con- 
structing a  canal  as  viewed  by  Europeans  at  this  time,  Go- 
mara  writes  in  1554:  "It  is  true  that  mountains  obstruct 
these  passages,  but  if  there  be  mountains  there  be  also 
hands;  let  but  the  resolve  be  formed  to  make  the  passage 
and  it  can  be  made." 

Building  ships  on  the  Pacific  side,  in  1522  Hernan  Cortes 
sailed  up  and  down  the  coast  seeking  a  strait.  Two  years  be- 
fore this  he  had  written  Charles  V  that  he  regarded  a  ship 
canal  at  Nicaragua  practicable  and  desirable.  In  case  this 
is  done,  he  says,  "It  would  render  the  King  of  Spain  mas- 


536  RETROSPECTION 

ter  of  so  many  kingdoms  that  he  might  consider  himself 
lord  of  the  world." 

The  emperor  had  charged  Gil  Gonzalez  in  Nicaragua  as 
well  as  Cortes  in  Mexico,  to  search  for  a  shorter  way  to  the 
"Indian  Land  of  Spice."  All  promised  compliance,  and 
special  expeditions  were  made  for  that  purpose.  Juan  de 
Ayola,  in  1535  ascended  the  river  Paraguay  and  crossed 
with  200  Spaniards  to  Peru.  Twelve  years  later  Irola 
crossed  the  mountains  to  the  Guapay  river.  Fernando  de 
Soto  hoped  to  find  a  waterway  through  the  continent  when 
in  1538  he  landed  in  Florida,  and  after  several  years  of 
wanderings  ascended  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  the  Ohio. 

Returning  from  his  voyage  of  1587  John  Davis  wrote : 
* '  I  have  brought  the  passage  to  that  likelihood  as  that  I  am 
assured  that  it  must  bee  in  one  of  foure  places,  or  els  not 
at  all."  That  is  to  say,  by  some  one  of  the  imaginary  ways 
around  or  through  the  northern  part  of  the  continent. 
Peter  Martyr's  map  of  1587  has  a  "Mare  Dulce"  at  60° 
which  can  scarcely  refer  to  Hudson  bay.  Acosta,  1590, 
devotes  a  chapter  to  "The  strait  which  some  affirm  to  be 
in  Florida." 

To  Andres  de  Urdaneta,  friar  and  navigator,  the  first 
to  cross  the  Pacific  sailing  eastward,  was  at  one  time  at- 
tributed the  honor  of  having  discovered  the  mythical  strait, 
as  he  took  pleasure  in  telling  strange  stories  and  mapping 
it  for  the  delectation  of  the  credulous.  Thus  the  coasts  of 
Central  and  South  America  were  soon  disclosed,  but  con- 
jectural geography  as  applied  to  the  north,  became  wilder 
and  more  eccentric  as  the  years  passed  by. 

In  rounding  Cape  Horn  into  the  Pacific  in  1578,  Francis 
Drake  intended  if  possible  to  return  home  through  the 
Anian  strait,  which  he  sought  for  on  the  Oajaca  coast  of 
Mexico,  and  thence  northward  as  far  as  Cape  Mendocino. 
The  failure  of  Drake  to  return  by  way  of  the  north  Pacific 
caused  England  to  confine  her  efforts  to  the  Atlantic  side. 
The  ravages  of  the  freebooter,  however,  in  the  South  sea 
forced  upon  Spain  the  necessity  of  fortifying  the  strait 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA    CANAL    537 

if  any  such  existed.  And  that  it  did  exist  became  all  the 
time  the  more  settled  opinion  from  the  fact  that  Drake's 
homeward  route  was  for  many  years  not  known  to  Span- 
iards, so  that  current  rumors  became  the  settled  opinion 
that  Drake  had  indeed  returned  to  England  by  a  strait 
which  he  found  in  the  northern  part  of  the  continent. 

Not  long  afterward  appeared  a  fictitious  narrative  con- 
nected with  this  same  expedition.  It  was  told  by  Padre 
Ascension  to  another  priest,  Zarate  de  Salmeron,  who  wrote 
of  it  in  1626.  He  says  that  a  foreign  pilot  named  Monera 
"sailed  from  the  Sea  of  the  North  to  the  Sea  of  the  South 
by  the  Strait  of  Anian"  with  the  Englishman  Drake,  and 
gave  the  account  of  it  to  Rodrigo  del  Rio,  governor  of  New 
Galicia.  Further,  the  pilot  Monera  affirmed  that  he  had 
been  set  on  shore  in  the  vicinity  of  Anian,  "very  sick  and 
more  dead  than  alive,"  by  Drake  on  his  homeward  voyage, 
— a  rather  more  bungling  falsehood  than  usual.  The  Span- 
iards had  probably  yet  to  learn  that  Drake  entered  the 
Pacific  round  Cape  Horn,  and  could  not  therefore  have 
sailed  over  or  flown  over  the  northern  part  of  the  conti- 
nent, however  he  may  have  returned. 

Probably  the  first  formal  work  published  on  the  subject 
of  interoceanic  communication  was  in  1576  and  entitled 
"A  Discourse  of  a  Discouerie  for  a  new  Passage  to  Cataia," 
Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  was  the  author,  who  aims  to  ' '  proue 
by  authoritie  a  passage  to  be  on  the  North  side  of  America 
to  goe  to  Cataia,  China,  and  the  East  Indea,"  the  authority 
being  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  other  of  the  ancient  philosophers 
touching  the  old  Atlantis,  confirmed  by  the  "best  modern 
geographers"  as  Frisius,  Apianus,  and  Miinster,  to  the 
effect  that  America  is  an  island. 

From  the  first  effort  by  Hugh  Willoughby  in  1553  to  dis- 
cover a  northeast  passage  to  the  finding  of  a  northwest 
passage  by  McClure  in  1850,  and  a  northeast  passage  by 
Nordenskjold  in  1879,  there  were  many  futile  attempts  to 
sail  round  the  northern  end  of  the  continent,  quite  a  num- 
ber of  them  ending  disastrously. 


538  RETROSPECTION 

When  after  these  centuries  of  examination  and  discus- 
sion, the  coast  lay  disclosed  from  Panama  to  Magellan 
strait,  and  northward  to  the  Frozen  sea,  and  it  became  cer- 
tain that  there  was  no  Anian  or  other  natural  passage 
through  the  long  stretch  of  continent  extending  across  the 
world,  almost  from  pole  to  pole,  and  it  came  to  the  definite 
proposition  of  cutting  a  canal  through  the  continent,  the 
more  difficult  and  impracticable  schemes  in  the  north  and 
in  the  south  were  abandoned,  leaving  for  consideration  five 
groups,  clustered  respectively  at  Tehuantepec,  at  Honduras, 
at  Nicaragua,  at  Costa  Rica,  and  on  the  isthmus  of  Darien, 
or  Panama.  The  first  second  and  fourth  of  these  groups 
were  in  due  time  abandoned,  the  third  and  fifth  remained 
as  the  subject  of  long  controversy. 

The  plan  of  a  ship  canal  across  the  isthmus  of  Tehuan- 
tepec, 130  miles,  using  the  rivers  Coatzacoalcos  and  Tehuan- 
tepec, or  Chimalapa,  flowing  in  either  direction,  with  head 
waters  near  together,  the  two  constituting  an  almost  con- 
tinuous waterway  across  the  continent,  was  taken  up  seri- 
ously, as  was  also  Mr.  Eads'  scheme  of  a  ship  railway,  but 
without  results  from  either. 

In  the  archives  in  Madrid  is  a  survey  made  in  1715.  A 
half-century  later,  in  1774,  two  Spanish  officers,  Corral  and 
Cramer,  after  careful  inspection  reported  that  the  rivers 
Chimalapa  and  Malapaso  might  be  joined  by  a  canal  eight 
leagues  in  length.  General  Orbegoso,  a  Spanish  official,  ex- 
plored and  mapped  the  several  isthmuses  from  Tehuantepec 
south.  The  map  was  published  in  1839.  He  did  not  favor 
the  Tehuantepec  crossing.  This  ground  was  again  surveyed 
in  1843  by  C.  Moro  for  Jose  de  Garay  and  others,  who  con- 
cluded that  a  canal  similar  to  the  Caledonia  in  Scotland 
would  be  better  here  than  a  large  ship  waterway.  These 
surveys  and  reports  drew  the  attention  of  .the  United  States 
government  to  this  quarter.  An  American  commission  was 
formed  in  1850,  while  California  traffic  congested  at 
Panama,  with  Major  Barnard  of  the  United  States  en- 
gineers at  the  head.  After  a  personal  examination,  Major 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    539 

Barnard  declared  that  the  route  presented  few  attractions 
for  the  construction  of  a  ship  canal.  On  the  other  hand, 
officers  of  the  United  States  navy  looked  over  the  ground 
in  1869  and  reported  favorably,  as  did  also  Captain  Shu- 
f eldt,  who  made  a  personal  survey  the  following  year. 

The  early  occurrences  at  Nicaragua  may  be  briefly 
stated.  The  later  ones  fill  volumes. 

Mention  has  already  been  made  of  the  efforts  of  Gil 
Gonzalez  in  this  quarter.  To  Pedrarias  Davila,  who  went 
there  as  governor,  all  was  yet  new.  When  he  saw  the  great 
lakes  he  remembered  the  words  of  his  royal  master,  if  pos- 
sible to  find  a  strait.  He  soon  discovered  the  outlet  into 
the  Atlantic,  but  how  best  to  construct  a  royal  highway 
occupied  him  and  other  officials  for  many  years,  the  plan 
finally  deemed  the  best  being  canal  cuts  round  the  falls  of 
the  San  Juan,  and  across  from  the  lake  to  the  Pacific.  The 
French  and  English  as  well  as  the  Spaniards  were  in- 
terested. 

The  royal  engineer,  Manuel  Galisteo,  in  1791  declared 
connecting  the  lakes  and  ocean  impracticable,  the  construc- 
tion of  locks  being  then  but  little  understood. 

It  was  proposed  by  La  Bastide  in  1791  to  widen  the 
river  Sapoa  between  the  lake  and  the  gulf  of  Papagayo, 
with  a  canal  to  the  gulf  of  Nicoya.  Construction  was  de- 
creed by  the  Spanish  Cortes  in  1814,  but  political  events 
soon  absorbed  all  other  interests. 

Schemes  of  a  ship  railway  were  abandoned,  measures 
were  taken  to  build  an  ordinary  transcontinental  railroad 
which  would  so  greatly  lessen  the  distance  between  New 
York  and  San  Francisco,  but  the  work  was  taken  from  the 
hands  of  the  American  capitalists  and  built  finally  by  the 
Mexican  government. 

Many  other  proposals  were  made  about  this  time.  A 
franchise  was  granted  to  John  Baily  for  a  London  firm  in 
1823.  Barclay  and  Co.  offered  to  construct  a  canal  and 
open  the  Nicaragua  route  provided  certain  concessions 
were  made  by  the  government.  In  1829  a  franchise  was 


540  RETROSPECTION 

decreed  to  the  king  of  Holland,  but  war  with  Belgium  was 
now  the  excuse;  a  survey  was  begun  in  1837  by  President 
Morazan  for  Central  America,  and  continued  the  following 
year  for  the  government  of  Nicaragua ;  meanwhile  Edward 
Belcher,  of  the  British  navy,  was  interesting  himself  over 
a  proposed  cut  between  Managua  lake  and  the  bay  of  Fon- 
seca;  on  several  occasions  aid  was  asked  from  the  United 
States.  From  1839  to  1842  three  men,  promoters  they  would 
be  called  to-day,  P.  Rouhand,  Veteri  Castellon,  and  one 
Jerez  were  trying  to  raise  funds  to  finance  the  scheme ;  the 
co-operation  of  the  king  of  France  was  sought  in  1844  and 
refused ;  Louis  Napoleon  became  interested  in  1846 ;  in 
1847  the  Costa  Rica  government  came  forward  with  a  plan 
to  come  in  south  of  San  Juan  del  Sur  along  the  Sapoa  to 
Salinas  bay ;  Nicaragua  appeared  again  in  1848  with  a  con- 
tract with  a  New  York  firm  to  do  the  work. 

Then  in  1849,  the  magnet  gold  drawing  to  California 
men  from  all  the  world,  came  Cornelius  Vanderbilt  and 
Joseph  L.  White  into  the  midst  of  affairs,  with  their  Nicar- 
agua Transit  line  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  "A 
thousand  miles  shorter  than  any  other  route,"  they  said. 
There  were  steamboats  on  the  river,  and  mules  for  the  land 
travel,  but  the  promised  canal,  which  the  Clayton-Bulwer 
treaty  was  to  make  perpetually  neutral,  did  not  material- 
ise. A  survey  was  made  of  the  river  San  Juan,  Lake 
Nicaragua,  and  the  land  intervening  to  the  Pacific  by  the 
Central  American  Transit  Company  in  1856,  after  the 
Childs'  survey  in  1851,  under  the  direction  of  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  ship  canal  company.  The  land  section  had  been 
previously  surveyed  in  1781  by  order  of  the  Spanish  gov- 
ernment by  Manuel  Galisteo,  and  1838  by  John  Baily 
for  the  Central  American  government. 

A  line  for  the  canal  was  proposed  by  S.  Bailey  in  1852 
from  La  Virgen  to  San  Juan  del  Sur,  following  nearly  the 
track  of  the  Transit  company.  The  United  States  consul 
at  Nicaragua  in  1853,  E.  G.  Squier,  favored  Belcher's  plan 
of  utilizing  both  lakes,  and  passing  through  the  Cone  jo 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    541 

valley  and  Estero  Real  to  Fonseca  bay.  Squier  also  pro- 
posed a  railway  from  Fonseca  bay  through  Honduras. 

The  Nicaragua  government,  in  May,  1858,  made  a  con- 
tract with  Felix  Belly,  for  the  firm  of  Belly,  Milland,  and 
company,  for  the  construction  of  a  ship  passage-way  from 
ocean  to  ocean.  Mr.  Belly  failing  to  do  the  work,  the  con- 
tract was  assigned  to  the  International  Canal  company, 
whatever  that  may  have  been,  and  finally  to  Michel  Cheva- 
lier, where  it  ended.  Of  the  later  surveys  and  the  volu- 
minous reports,  with  lengthy  congressional  discussions,  it 
is  not  practicable  here  to  speak. 

Thus  these  centuries  of  ceaseless  expectation  have 
passed  away  and  so  far  as  the  mind  of  man  may  judge, 
Nicaragua's  chances  for  a  canal  are  no  better,  if  as  good, 
than  they  were  four  hundred  years  ago,  when  Gil  Gonzalez, 
spurred  on  by  Charles  V,  was  there  at  hand  building  and 
sailing  his  little  ships,  and  hunting  around  for  the  best 
place  for  the  royal  ditch. 

Costa  Rica  and  Honduras  both  have  had  their  spasms 
of  speculation  over  the  question  of  canal  construction,  the 
places  considered  being  the  river  San  Carlos  and  gulf  of 
Nicoya;  the  rivers  Nino  and  Tempisque  and  gulf  of 
Nicoya ;  river  Sapao  and  bay  of  Salinas ;  river  Segovia  and 
bay  of  Fonseca ;  bay  of  Honduras  to  bay  of  Fonseca ;  Port 
Limon  to  Caldera,  and  others. 

And  here  we  come  finally  to  the  Panama  canal  and  the 
Pacific.  The  isthmus  of  Darien  as  it  was  first  designated, 
or  of  Panama  as  it  is  now  called,  being  the  narrowest  and 
lowest  American  land  separating  the  two  oceans,  the  first 
mainland  interior  to  be  explored  by  Europeans,  and  the 
spot  whence  they  first  saw  looking  southward  the  great 
South  sea,  it  was  natural,  when  the  question  arose  of 
breaking  through  the  world-long  barrier,  that  its  weakest 
point  should  be  first  considered.  But  whereabout  in  this 
American  netherland  was  this  weakest  point?  Granted 
that  the  Darien  isthmus  presented  the  fewest  obstacles  for 


542  RETROSPECTION 

constructing  and  operating  an  interocean  canal,  which  of 
the  several  points  presented  was,  considering  everything, 
the  best? 

Gomara  said,  as  early  as  1551,  "It  would  have  to  be  by 
one  of  four  lines,  namely  (1)  from  Chagres  to  Panama; 
or  (2)  by  way  of  the  Nicaragua  lakes;  or  (3)  from  Vera 
Cruz  to  Tehuantepec;  or  (4)  from  Uraba  to  the  gulf  of 
San  Miguel."  That  is  to  say,  there  were  two  available 
spots  on  the  isthmus  of  Darien,  as  against  Tehuantepec 
and  Nicaragua  as  possible  rivals.  Under  the  two  cate- 
gories mentioned  by  this  very  early  historian  there  were 
to  be  considered,  at  Panama,  the  river  Chagres,  Gorgona, 
and  Panama;  Trinidad  and  Caimito,  Navy  bay,  Chagres 
river,  Bonito,  and  Bernardo ;  San  Bias  gulf  and  the  Chepo 
river;  and  at  Darien,  the  bay  of  Caledonia,  Port  Escoces 
and  the  rivers  Arguia,  Paya,  and  Tayra  and  the  gulf  of 
San  Miguel;  the  Atrato  river;  the  Napipi  and  bay  of 
Cupia ;  and  the  river  Uruando  to  Kelly 's  inlet. 

In  February,  1534,  in  a  cedula  issued  by  Charles  V, 
Pascual  de  Andagoya  was  commissioned  to  examine  and 
report  on  the  feasibility  of  uniting  the  Chagres  river  with 
the  Rio  Grande,  or  the  Panama,  by  means  of  a  canal.  In 
his  dispatch  to  the  emperor,  after  his  survey  had  been  com- 
pleted, Andagoya  expressed  the  opinion  that ' '  There  was  no 
monarch  in  all  Europe  rich  enough  for  such  an  enterprise. ' ' 

Under  orders  of  Pedro  de  los  Rios,  governor  of  Panama 
in  1526,  the  Rio  los  Lagartos,  as  the  Chagres  river  was  then 
called,  and  a  small  stream  known  as  the  Panama  river 
flowing  in  the  opposite  direction,  also  the  Rio  Grande  to- 
gether with  the  country  between  them  were  explored  for 
the  purpose  of  facilitating  communication  between  the 
two  seas.  Land  carriage  was  thus  reduced  to  a  distance  of 
nine  leagues.  This  is  probably  the  shortest  land  space 
between  waterlines  on  the  continent,  the  two  places  con- 
nected being  then  called  Chepo  and  Carti,  where  a  survey 
was  made  to  Mandinga  bay  by  Evan  Hopkins  for  the  New 
Granada  government. 


SIGNIFICANCE    OP   THE    PANAMA   CANAL    543 

Diego  Fernandez  de  Velasco,  governor  of  Castilla  del 
Oro,  as  Costa  Rica  and  the  Isthmus  to  the  west  was  then 
called,  was  ordered  by  the  king  of  Spain,  in  1616,  to  re- 
port on  the  feasibility  of  connecting  the  rivers  Dacil  and 
Damaquiel  some  thirty  leagues  from  Cartagena;  and  a 
similar  investigation  at  the  gulf  of  San  Miguel  and  the 
Rio  Darien.  Surveys  were  made  of  the  Chagres,  or  Limon 
bay,  and  Panama  route  by  Lloyd  and  Falmarc  in  1829 
under  a  commission  from  Bolivar;  and  again  by  M. 
Garella,  who  reported  bad  harbors  at  either  end. 

It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  of  the  many  surveys  made 
about  this  time  in  this  vicinity  not  one  reported  favorably 
on  the  route  selected  by  M.  de  Lesseps. 

The  present  is  not  the  first  appearance  of  the  United 
States  upon  the  Panama  isthmus,  nor  the  present  Panama 
government  the  first  with  which  we  have  had  to  deal.  In 
1835,  ten  years  after  the  United  States  government  had 
been  first  seriously  considering  interoceanic  communica- 
tion, the  president  was  requested  by  the  senate  to  enter 
into  negotiations  with  the  Isthmian  governments  for  the 
protection  of  Americans  who  might  engage  in  this  work. 
Whereupon  in  1846,  a  treaty  was  made  with  New  Granada, 
and  protection  and  right  of  way  promised  for  ' '  Any  modes 
of  communication  that  now  exist  or  that  may  hereafter 
be  constructed,"  the  United  States  to  guarantee  to  New 
Granada  neutrality  and  rights  of  sovereignty.  A  railway 
was  the  proximate  purpose.  It  was  begun  in  1850,  with 
Colon  and  Panama  as  the  termini  and  was  completed  in 
1855,  at  a  cost  of  eight  millions  for  the  48  miles.  After 
paying  the  stockholders,  William  H.  Aspinwall,  Henry 
Chauncey,  and  John  L.  Stephens,  twenty  millions,  the  road 
was  sold  to  the  de  Lesseps  company  for  seventeen  and  a 
half  millions. 

In  1850  and  1851  Captain  Fitzroy  crossed  the  Isthmus 
for  explorations,  but  his  investigations  were  impeded  by 
forest  and  morass,  thick  tropical  undergrowth,  climate, 
poisonous  insects  and  reptiles,  and  hostile  natives. 


544  RETROSPECTION 

Privilege  to  construct  the  proposed  canal  at  this  point 
was  granted  in  1852  by  the  government  of  New  Granada 
to  Edward  Cullen,  Charles  Fox,  John  Henderson,  and 
Thomas  Brassey,  with  power  to  select  any  port  west  of  the 
Atrato  to  Punta  Mosquitos  as  the  Atlantic  terminus. 
Again  in  1859  appeared  on  the  scene  Captain  Fitzroy,  en- 
tering Port  Escoces,  or  Caledonia  bay,  north  of  the  gulf 
of  Darien,  and  discovering  the  river  Savanah  flowing  into 
the  gulf  of  San  Miguel,  Panama  bay,  a  route  not  men- 
tioned by  Humboldt  nor  hitherto  mapped  by  any  one. 
After  a  careful  examination  of  the  country,  Fitzroy  con- 
cluded that  this  was  the  best  place  for  a  ship  canal,  and  so 
reported  to  Lord  Palmerston  and  the  London  Geographical 
society.  The  Isthmus  here  is  33  miles  wide,  or  by  way 
of  the  Savanah,  as  the  canal  would  go,  39  miles.  The 
harbors  at  both  termini  are  good. 

In  the  opinion  of  Dr.  Cullen,  who  examined  the  ground, 
a  canal  might,  with  no  great  difficulty,  be  cut  from  the 
source  of  the  Savanah  through  a  ravine  three  leagues  in 
length  to  Caledonia  bay,  say  from  Principe,  or  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Lara,  to  Port  Escoces,  a  distance  of  twenty- 
two  miles.  It  would  be  without  locks,  the  water  of  either 
ocean  flowing  freely  in  and  out,  governed  by  the  tides  and 
the  time  of  transit  from  sea  to  sea  would  be  six  hours.  A 
survey  was  also  made  by  a  competent  engineer,  Lionel 
Gisborne,  who  reported  the  conditions  favorable  in  every 
respect.  If  the  several  reports  of  surveyors  and  engineers, 
made  at  different  times  and  under  widely  different  aus- 
pices, are  to  be  relied  upon,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  this  route 
combines  all  the  advantages  of  all  the  Isthmus  crossings, 
namely,  shortening  and  making  direct  course,  excellence  of 
harbors  and  low  elevation  of  interior,  good  climate,  no 
locks  and  expeditious  service. 

It  was  with  difficulty  that  most  of  these  surveys  were 
made.  Everywhere  the  natives,  fierce  and  jealous,  interposed 
obstacles  and  threatened  life,  as  upon  the  attempted  ascent 
of  the  Paya  river  by  Mr.  Wheelwright  in  1837,  and  later 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA   CANAL    545 

by  Dr.  Cullen.  In  like  manner  Mr.  Hopkins  was  turned 
from  his  journey  up  the  Chepo  toward  Mandinga  or  San 
Bias  bay.  The  savages  also  feared  the  diseases  of  civiliza- 
tion, especially  small-pox. 

Upon  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  steamship 
lines  were  established  between  New  York  and  San  Fran- 
cisco, with  transits  over  the  isthmuses  of  Panama,  Nica- 
ragua, and  Tehuantepec,  though  the  last  named  route  was 
soon  abandoned.  Overland  stages  were  set  running  west- 
ward from  the  Mississippi  river,  following  for  the  most 
part  the  old  trapper  and  emigrant  trails.  The  first  over- 
land railway  within  the  United  States  was  completed  in 
1871. 

A  company  was  formed  in  1853  under  the  auspices  of 
Captain  Pirn  to  build  a  railway  across  from  Punta  Mico, 
but  work  was  not  begun  on  it. 

A  survey  made  in  1866  in  Chiriqui  by  the  United 
States  officers  for  a  railway  through  the  cordillera,  with 
Chiriqui  and  Shepard  on  the  Atlantic  and  Golfo  Dulce  on 
the  Pacific  as  termini,  was  favorably  reported  on  by  Com- 
modore Engle. 

The  inspection  of  the  late  French  undertaking  was  at 
the  congress  of  geographical  science  held  in  Paris  in  1875. 
A  company  was  organized  under  General  Tiirr,  and  Lieu- 
tenant Wyse  of  the  French  navy  was  sent  to  the  Isthmus. 
The  Colon-Panama  line  was  selected,  a  grant  was  obtained 
from  the  Colombian  government,  and  construction  placed 
in  the  hands  of  Ferdinand  de  Lesseps.  One  hundred  and 
twenty  million  dollars  it  was  thought  would  complete  the 
work,  but  two  hundred  millions  were  spent  before  failure 
was  admitted  and  the  effects  sold  for  forty  millions.  De 
Lesseps  died  and  was  buried;  and  Frenchmen  cursed  him 
because  he  lost  at  Panama  the  money  he  had  made  for 
them  at  Suez. 

Whether  the  route  selected  by  the  French  was  or  was 
not  the  best  it  was  assuredly  the  most  available.  The 
question  was  not,  for  how  small  an  amount  could  this  work 


546  RETROSPECTION 

be  done,  but  could  it  be  done  at  all  ?  Could  the  money  for 
it  be  obtained?  And  could  two  hundred  millions  be  se- 
cured for  construction  along  the  line  of  a  railway  and  over 
a  beaten  path  easier  than  one  hundred  millions  to  be  ex- 
pended in  unknown  and  almost  impenetrable  morass  and 
jungle  ? 

When  the  proposition  came  before  the  United  States 
government  there  was  no  question  raised  as  to  routes;  it 
was  to  take  for  forty  millions  what  had  cost  the  French 
two  hundred  millions  and  dig  where  they  had  dug — that 
or  nothing.  And  it  makes  no  difference  now  to  know  or 
not  to  know  that  a  canal  can  be  constructed  for  half  the 
cost  and  operated  at  one-quarter  of  the  expense  on  some 
other  than  the  De  Lesseps  line,  though  it  may  be  well  for 
the  next  canal-builder  to  bear  this  in  mind.  Indeed,  so 
far  as  the  United  States  alone  is  concerned,  Nicaragua 
would  have  been  more  advantageous  than  any  place  at 
Panama;  but  for  the  use  of  all  the  world  the  latter  is 
more  central  and  convenient. 

It  was  time  the  work  should  be  done,  and  there  was  no 
one  but  our  government  to  do  it.  Time  enough  had  been 
spent  over  it  by  the  European  governments,  and  also  by 
the  American  Congress,  considering  how  small  the  outlay 
which  was  to  produce  such  great  results.  So  Rameses  II., 
as  we  are  told,  meditated  long  beneath  his  pyramids  and 
his  Sphinx  over  the  plan  which  came  to  his  mind  of  doing 
the  work  at  Suez  himself,  which  he  finally  left  to  French- 
men to  do,  the  question  of  time  or  the  world's  waiting  two 
or  three  thousand  years  not  making  apparently  much  dif- 
ference to  him. 

Our  Congress  likewise  enjoyed  its  Pyramids,  and  its 
Sphinx,  in  the  corporate  interests  and  political  influence 
that  obstructed  its  efforts. 

Napoleon  Bonaparte  thought  of  cutting  through  the 
Suez  isthmus,  but  when  informed  by  his  engineer  that  the 
Mediterranean  was  thirty  feet  higher  than  the  Red  Sea  he 
reflected  upon  the  evils  which  might  arise  from  disturbing 


SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    PANAMA    CANAL    547 

the  equilibrium  of  the  world's  waters  and  considerately 
desisted. 

On  another  occasion  the  Corsican  obtained  better  ad- 
vice, though  he  acted  on  it  no  more  than  on  the  other. 
Asking  Decres,  one  day,  what  he  should  do  about  the  ces- 
sion of  Louisiana  to  the  United  States,  the  minister  re- 
plied, "If  the  isthmus  of  Panama  is  cut  through  some  day 
it  will  occasion  an  immense  revolution  in  navigation,  so 
that  a  voyage  around  the  world  will  be  easier  than  the 
longest  cruise  to-day.  Louisiana  will  be  on  the  line  of  this 
new  route,  and  will  be  of  inestimable  value.  Don't  give 
it  up." 

The  brilliant  consummation,  on  the  part  of  the  United 
States  government,  of  preliminary  measures  favorable  to 
the  Panama  enterprise  assured  the  speedy  construction  and 
permanent  security  of  an  interoceanic  waterway  at  this 
point.  It  is  not  probable  that  this  could  have  been  accom- 
plished at  this  time  by  any  other  nation.  No  other  in- 
fluence would  have  improvised  a  responsible  government 
with  which  to  deal,  and  one  favorable  in  every  respect;  no 
other  power  could  have  thus  secured  the  necessary  author- 
ity on  the  Isthmus,  the  necessary  land  and  its  dominion, 
harmonizing  conflicting  interests  and  silencing  conflicting 
tongues. 


INDEX 


Adams,  C.  F.,  on  the  recall  of  the 
judiciary,  515. 

African,  cost  of  the,  368-70 ;  true 
and  false  kindness,  369. 

Agriculture,  progress  of,  202. 

Alaska,  purchase  of,  6. 

Alvarado,  J.  B.,  Historia  de  Cali- 
fornia, MS.  dictation  for  use 
as  historical  material  by  Mr. 
Bancroft,  311. 

Americans,  new,  types  of,  154-7; 
Am.  miner,  characteristics  of, 
169-71. 

An  artless  adventurer,  114-136. 

Andagoya,  P.  de,  surveys  for  a 
canal,  542. 

Andrade,  J.,  collection  of  books 
and  manuscripts,  313;  pur- 
chased for  the  Bancroft  Li- 
brary, 314. 

Anglo-Americans,  ever  lessening 
ratio  of,  505. 

Anglo  -  Californian,  characteris- 
tics, 161;  ethnic  evolution  of, 
161-4;  nobility  of,  161. 

Anglo-Saxons  in  America  over- 
burdened by  foreigners,  152-4. 

Anian,  mythical  strait  of,  44, 
525-30. 

An  unholy  alliance,  268-83. 

Ap6,  M.,  the  scientific  savage, 
journey  of,  67. 


Appellate  tribunals  as  high 
courts  of  technicalities,  514. 

Archives,  surveyor-general's  of- 
fice, 309;  copied  for  Bancroft 
Library,  310;  of  the  Vigilance 
Committee,  312;  and  others, 
309-17. 

Asia    and    Africa    in    America, 

'   345-374. 

Australia,  gold  product,  101. 


Balboa,  V.  N.  de,  early  adven- 
tures of,  118;  later  expeditions 
of,  226-37;  unconscious  of  the 
importance  of  his  discovery, 
533. 

Baldwin,  "  Lucky,"  Bank  of  Cali- 
fornia loans,  205. 

Bancroft,  H.  H.,  parentage  and 
birth,  77;  early  life,  78-89; 
Ohio  and  the  town  of  Gran- 
ville,  75-8 ;  atmosphere  and  en- 
vironment, 77-80 ;  discipline, 
old  methods  and  new,  79-82; 
education,  82;  farm  work,  82- 
83;  Grandfather  Howe,  86; 
anti-slavery  convention,  84 ; 
wagoning  slaves  on  their  way 
from  Kentucky  to  Canada,  85; 
choice  of  a  career,  88-9 ;  meet- 
ing with  Sutter,  90;  interview 
with  George  of  Coloma,  106 ; 
arrival  in  San  Francisco,  114; 
Buffalo  bookstore  experiences, 


549 


550 


INDEX 


114-5;  the  voyage,  Havana, 
Jamaica,  and  on  the  Isthmus, 
115-8;  a  transformation,  115; 
at  San  Diego,  160 ;  in  the 
mines,  166;  delights  of  fresh 
political  air,  195;  fruit-rais- 
ing, 202;  with  Diaz  in  Mexico, 
287;  book  collecting  and  busi- 
ness, 301-18;  among  the  his- 
tory makers  of  the  North  and 
the  archives  and  collectors  of 
the  South,  308-18 ;  friendly  bat- 
tling with  the  Hispano-Cali- 
fornians,  310;  a  signal  achieve- 
ment, a  unique  collection,  311- 
318;  purposes  and  projects, 
319-20;  personnel  of  the  Ban- 
croft Library,  307-30 ;  building 
and  business,  321-7;  further 
ingatherings  from  the  East 
and  Europe,  313-19;  indexing 
and  extracting  of  material, 
330 ;  difficulties  encountered, 
325-37;  history  writing,  330- 
340;  the  series,  332;  methods 
employed,  334-45 ;  further 
work  in  Mexico,  343;  distin- 
guished visitors  and  collabo- 
rators, 344;  the  work  accom- 
plished, 344. 

Bancroft  Library,  a  collection  of 
collections,  312-13;  summary, 
313-17;  library  building,  318. 

Bankers,  bad  and  good,  321; 
more  pretentious  than  patri- 
otic, some  of  them,  322. 

Battle-ships,  futility  of  competi- 
tive building,  16. 

Begbie,  Sir  M.,  his  court  at  Vic- 
toria, 305. 

Bonneville,  Capt.,  expeditions,  53. 
Boone,  D.,  in  Kentucky,  74. 


Book  collecting  and  the  collector, 
314. 

Brannan,  S.,  arrival  in  ship 
Brooklyn,  70;  his  Mormon  fol- 
lowing, 71;  wealth  and  busi- 
ness enterprise,  71-2;  as  a 
miner,  113;  among  the  judges, 
181. 

Brasseur  de  Bourbourg,  histor- 
ical material,  313. 

Bribery,  early  official,  233;  in 
later  times,  216-83. 

Broderick,  D.  C.,  political  career, 
198;  killed  by  Terry,  200. 

Buckley,  C.,  blind  boss  of  the  old 
regime,  245. 

Building  of  the  Republic,  1. 

Burns,  W.  J.,  detective,  248; 
opinion  of  Ruef,  501. 

Business,  in  the  early  fifties,  126. 

Cabot  and  Cortereal,  discover- 
ies of,  527. 

Cabrillo's  survey  to  San  Diego, 
44. 

Calhoun,  P.,  indictment  and 
prosecution,  249 ;  characteris- 
tics of,  269-70. 

California,  acquisition  of,  6; 
mapped  as  an  island,  43;  peo- 
pling of,  66;  admitted  as  a 
state,  the  question  of  slavery, 
92;  town  sites,  107;  land 
titles,  108;  loyalty  of,  109;  re- 
acting influence  on  the  East, 
111;  representative  men  of  the 
flush  times,  113;  coast  trading 
in  1835,  114,  127;  isthmus 
transit  in  early  days,  119; 
steamer  passengers,  123;  typ- 
ical miner,  125;  earliest  men 


INDEX 


551 


of  the  time,  172;  earliest  set- 
tlers, 175;  always  loyal,  true 
to  the  right  and  to  the  Union, 
206. 

Call  of  gold,  90-113. 

Canada,  French  and  Indian  peo- 
ples, 146-7. 

Capital  and  Labor,  relative  atti- 
tudes of,  274. 

Capital,  in  relation  to  labor,  376 ; 
coercive  and  tyrannical,  380. 

Central  Pacific  Railroad,  antici- 
pations from,  232;  epoch  of 
intimidation,  233 ;  infamies 
and  impositions,  234. 

Carrillo,  L.,  ascends  the  river 
Atrato  with  Balboa,  533. 

Carver,  J.  J.,  in  Dacotah,  67. 

Cattle  raising  in  the  mountains, 
66. 

Cerruti,  G.,  secretary  and  col- 
lector for  the  Bancroft  Library, 
309-10;  his  literary  achieve- 
ments, 311-12. 

China,  tea  and  fur  trade,  3;  im- 
portance of  isthmus  to,  522. 

Chinese,  first  appearance  in 
America,  345 ;  friendly  recep- 
tion with  profuse  promises, 
346;  followed  by  ill  treatment, 
351-5;  cruelties  and  outrages 
in  the  mines,  351;  raids  of 
drunken  miners,  352-5;  perse- 
cutions in  the  city,  353;  Den- 
nis Kearney  and  Kearneyism, 
354;  folly  of  government,  365; 
good  qualities,  351;  indispen- 
sable for  household,  farm,  and 
factory  work,  356;  character 
of,  356-8 ;  as  workingmen,  357 ; 
in  the  mines,  350;  foreign 


miners'  tax,  360;  attitude  of 
press  and  politicians,  353-5; 
false  charges,  355;  insane  pol- 
icy of  the  United  States,  355- 
365. 

Clbola,  rumors  concerning,  43. 
Citizenship,  debasement  of,  234- 

237;     timidity    of    prominent 

men,  478. 
Civilization,    rights   and   wrongs 

of,   140-4;    a  new  civilization, 

489. 
Clergy,  attitude  of,  toward  high 

crime,  278. 

Coleman,  W.  T.,  president  Vigi- 
lance Committee,  190,  197. 

Collecting,  philosophy  of,  books 
and  curios,  303,  314;  various 
expeditions  and  agencies,  304- 
344. 

Coloma,  gold  discovery,  90;  King 
George,  107. 

Colombia,  canal  zone  negotia- 
tions, 8. 

Colonial,  shipping,  2;  expansion, 
1-6;  New  England  and  Vir- 
ginia colonists,  54. 

Columbus,  seeking  a  strait,  522; 
speculations  of,  526. 

Commerce,  of  the  isthmus,  521 ; 
pathways  of  the  plains,  64; 
commerce  of  the  prairies,  68; 
of  the  isthmus,  521. 

Comparative  republicanism,  284- 

300. 
Comstock    mines,    gambling    in; 

204. 

Coon,  H.  P.,  police  judge,  196. 
C6rdova,  F.  H.  de,  in  Nicaragua, 

534. 


552 


INDEX 


Coronado,  F.  V.  de,  expedition  to 
New  Mexico,  43. 

Cortes,  H.,  seeks  a  strait,  535. 

Court  of  law,  in  Victoria,  305; 
in  England  and  America,  252- 
253;  physical  and  moral  para- 
phernalia, 254;  rich  and  poor 
litigants,  261;  under  the  in- 
cubus of  technicalities,  508. 

Credit  Mobilier,  from  Paris,  be- 
comes a  text-book  in  America; 
what  it  teaches,  234. 

Crime,  epochs  of,  194;  the  true 
criminal  class,  221;  our  courts 
of  law,  225 ;  king  and  over- 
lord, 277;  crops  from  dragon's 
teeth,  279. 

Crittenden,  A.  P.,  shot  by  Laura 
D.  Fair,  200. 

Cuba,  rendezvous  of  New  World 

adventurers,  523. 
Cullen,  E.,  projects  for  a  canal, 

544. 

Cumberland  turnpike,  construc- 
tion and  traffic,  61. 

Cowles,  T.,  mariner,  530. 


Dabaiba,  golden  temple  of,   119, 
533. 

Dana,  R.  H.,  Jr.,  Two  Tears  be- 
fore the  Mast,  114. 

Darien,   Scotch  settlement,  22-3. 

Dark     age     of    graft,     232-249; 
when  ended,  490. 

Ddvila,  G.  G.,  on  the  rio  Balsas, 
534. 

De  Lesseps,  F.,  canal-digging  ex- 
periences, 543-6. 

Dewey,  G.,  action  at  Manila,  12. 


Diaz,  P.,  a  beneficent  ruler,  287- 
288 ;  unjustly  driven  forth, 
285 ;  life  and  character,  285-7 ; 
second-term  theory,  289. 

Discoveries,  Spanish  and  English, 
523-4. 

Douglas,  Sir  J.,  chief  at  Victoria, 
303;  Lady  Douglas,  304. 

Dows,  J.,  patriot,  "  contribution 
to  the  court,"  196. 

Drake,  F.,  his  many  false  reports, 
45;  his  Amian  strait  and  voy- 
age round  the  world,  536-7. 

Education,  waste  and  worth,  436 ; 
too  free  to  be  highly  valued, 
438;  many  spoiled  by  it,  439; 
too  many  professional  men, 
442;  as  a  fetish,  445;  igno- 
rance of  teachers,  447;  tainted 
money,  450;  poor  examples  for 
the  young,  451;  ethics  of,  446- 
452. 

Eliot,  Charles  W.,  Dr.,  liberal 
views  in  education,  443. 

Emigration,  early  wagon  roads, 
10;  through  the  Alleghanies, 
74;  into  the  Ohio  and  Missis- 
sippi valleys,  61-2;  to  Oregon 
and  California,  68-70;  Oregon 
camp-fires,  305. 

Equal  rights,  overthrow  of,  493. 

Erie  Canal,  importance  of  and 
influence  in  development,  59; 
effect  on  New  York,  62. 

Ethnic  evolutions,  65;  on  the 
plains.  66-7. 

Evolution  of  a  library,  291-318. 

Expansion  and  empire,  1-17;  at 
first  bewildering  to  the  colo- 
nists, 10. 


INDEX 


553 


Explorations  of  government,  56. 

Expulsion    of    Asiatics,    348-55; 

effect  on  manufactures,  351-9. 


Fashion,  freaks  of,  434. 

Field,  S.  J.,  while  U.  S.  judge 
his  man  kills  Terry,  263. 

"  Fifty-four  forty  or  fight,"  ar- 
gument in  the  Oregon  ques- 
tion, 4. 

Filibustering,  modern  piracy,  290. 

Filipinos,  incapable  of  self-gov- 
ernment, 11-13. 

Fletcher,  Drake's  chaplain's  fan- 
ciful report,  44-5. 

Flush  times,  features  of,  167-71. 

France,  on  the  Panama  isthmus, 
9;  in  Mexico,  290. 

Franciscans,  their  California 
Utopia,  26;  missions,  methods, 
and  wealth,  27-8. 

Fremont,  J.  C.,  entanglements  in 
Paris;  worthlessness  as  a  man, 
234. 

Frobisher,  M.,  strange  stories 
and  cosmographical  specula- 
tions, 528-30. 

Frontiers,  passing  of,  137-148; 
beginning  and  progress,  137; 
Atlantic  and  Pacific,  elusive- 
ness  and  disappearance,  161. 

Fuca,  J.  de,  adventures  of;  what 
Michael  Lok  said,  532. 

Fur  trade,  northwest  coast,  3 ; 
of  the  plains,  52;  early  expe- 
ditions, 52-3. 


Gama,  V.  da,  and  Prince  Henry, 
their  ways  and  works,  534. 


Gambling,  a  typical  saloon  of 
the  early  fifties;  human  life 
the  stake ;  "  home  or  the 
mines,"  124-5. 

Gilbert,  Sir  H.,  book  on  inter- 
oceanic  strait,  537. 

Gloria  in  Excelsis,  the  great 
work  which  has  been  accom- 
plished, 503-520. 

Gold,  discovery  of;  interview  of 
Marshall  and  Sutter,  90;  the 
call  of,  90-113;  inrush  of  peo- 
ple, emigrant  trains  and  ships, 
100;  reaction  on  the  East,  111; 
effect  on  industries  and  trans- 
portation, 94-99;  tax  on  min- 
ing, 133. 

Golden  Gate,  the  name,  172. 

Gomara,  site  of  Quivira,  531 ;  his 
several  routes  for  Panama 
Canal,  542. 

Government,  good  and  bad,  486; 
standards  of  excellence,  490-2; 
choice  of  rulers,  225-8;  gov- 
ernment ideals,  492. 

Governors  of  California,  some  of 
them,  198. 

Graft,  origin  of,  232-7;  its  ad- 
vent, 69;  dark  age  of,  232. 

Grafters,  patriotism  of,  273-6. 

Grant,  U.  S.,  overrated  as  a  man, 
231. 

Granville,  Mass.,  organization  of 
Licking  Land  Co.,  76. 

Granville,  Ohio,  a  New  Eng- 
land settlement,  74;  physical 
features,  77;  township  and 
farms,  78;  social  and  religious 
characteristics,  79;  home  life, 
80:  anti-slavery  feeling,  82; 
underground  railroading,  85 ; 


554 


INDEX 


politics,  86-7;  education  and 
religion,  87-9. 

Gray,  R.,  enters  Columbia  River, 
2;  voyage  round  the  world,  3. 

Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  treaty  of, 
92,  172,  309;  Mexican  law  in 
California,  178. 

Guzman,  A.  T.  de,  line  of  for- 
tresses across  the  isthmus,  533. 

Hatch,  of  Solano,  fruit-farming 
methods,  202. 

Heney,  F.  J.,  his  work  inaugu- 
rated by  Roosevelt,  229;  as 
prosecutor  of  high  crime,  247; 
his  career,  248,  490;  great 
work  accomplished  and  poor 
return,  272-3;  gross  ingrati- 
tude of  people,  502,  511-12. 

High  crime,  the  crimes  of  the 
wealthy  and  quasi-respectable, 
evolution  of,  210-31 ;  cupidity 
the  cause,  216;  training  of 
young  men  for,  217;  origin 
and  development,  219. 

Highways,  historic,  60. 

Hispano  -  Californian,  disappear- 
ance of,  170;  characteristics, 
171. 

History,  the  writing  of,  Russian 
material,  306 ;  uncertainties 
and  speculations  regarding, 
newspaper  projects,  319;  de- 
mands of  business,  320-2 ;  site 
and  building  on  Market  Street, 
321 ;  prejudices  encountered, 
training  assistants,  indexing, 
plan  and  routine,  322-7; 
methods  of  writing,  319;  aim 
and  ambition,  321-9;  dilem- 
mas, 323-4;  further  plans 
and  speculations,  324-31 ; 


avoid  irrelevant  expressions 
of  opinion,  328;  indexing,  ex- 
tracting, and  writing,  329-31; 
Native  Races  first  published, 
332;  the  series  complete,  332; 
incompetency  of  the  inexperi- 
enced, 336;  publication,  325; 
cooperative  methods,  333-4 ; 
training  and  utilizing  help, 
336;  free  reference  to  authori- 
ties, effect  of  religion  on  his- 
tory, 337;  innovations,  338; 
Professor  Royce,  sectarianism, 
filling  gaps,  341-2;  intercourse 
with  Porfirio  Diaz,  various  ar- 
chives, 342;  Henry  George  and 
his  book,  Dom  Pedro  and  oth- 
ers, 344. 

Hontan,  Baron  la,  fictitious  jour- 
ney of,  50. 

Horn,  Cape,  discovery  and  name, 
535. 

Hounds  or  Regulators,  exploits 
of,  180. 

Hudson,  H.,  explores  Hudson 
Bay,  531. 

Hakluyt  tells  many  strange  sto- 
ries as  to  the  way  the  conti- 
nent was  made,  528. 

Huntington,  C.  P.,  and  others  in 
the  mines,  112;  maker  of  mal- 
odorous history,  232;  feud 
with  Stanford,  234-5. 


Immigration,  too  much  low  ele- 
ment, 154-5. 

Imperialism,  a  fantasy,  11-16. 

Indians,  of  California,  26;  killed 
by  kindness.  27-8 ;  as  Chaplain 
Fletcher  said  he  saw  them,  45-, 
migrations  of,  50;  their  path- 
ways over  the  plains,  70; 


INDEX 


555 


rights  of,  137;  relative  treat- 
ment by  English  and  Spanish, 
138-44;  policy  of  Europeans, 
150-1;  origin  of,  306-7. 

Initiative,  its  nature  and  object, 
and  its  operations  in  Oregon, 
507. 

Injustice  of  law,  250-267. 

Innokentie,  Metropolitan  of  Mos- 
cow, 313. 

Interoceanic  communication, 

early  efforts  to  find  a  strait, 
521-2;  many  schemes  concern- 
ing, 430-42. 

Interregnum  of  crime,  194-209, 
277. 

Inventions,  influence  of  the  cot- 
ton gin,  and  effect  of  others, 
58. 

Isthmus  of  Darien,  or  Panama, 
adventurers  from  Cuba,  526-8 ; 
traffic  in  the  olden  time,  95, 
521;  early  expeditions  from, 
119;  transit  in  1852,  122-3; 
canal  routes,  542-6. 

Jackson,  A.,   in   Florida,   5. 

Japan,  called  to  life,  349;  carry- 
ing trade,  17;  development, 
367 ;  Japanese  as  laborers,  366. 

Jesuits,  expulsion  of,  26. 

Johnson,  H.  W.,  the  man  and  his 
work,  195;  emancipator  of  the 
people,  229 ;  phenomenal  efforts 
and  achievements,  483;  vic- 
tories and  reforms,  229;  his 
advent  an  epoch  in  history, 
232;  alone,  he  delivered  the 
state,  495;  with  Roosevelt, 
295;  character,  490,  498;  re- 
call of  judges,  267;  clean  poli- 
tics, 500;  further  effort  with 


more  results,  503,  518;  what 
we  owe  him,  and  what  our 
children  owe  him,  323. 

Journalism,  the  average  news- 
paper of  to-day  a  curiosity, 
400;  politics  on  either  side 
mostly  lies,  the  writer  know- 
ing that  the  reader  knows  the 
statements  to  be  lies;  purposes 
of  the  publisher,  owners  of 
newspapers,  401-6;  make-up  of 
the  modern  paper,  influence  of 
money,  406-9;  prejudices  of 
the  proprietor,  411;  the  aver- 
age newspaper  always  for  sale, 
403;  prints  what  the  people 
want,  little  influence  of,  409; 
a  prostituted  press,  406-7. 

Juarez  B.,  life  of,  wild  Indian, 
judge,  governor,  president, 
flight,  one  of  the  world's  great 
men,  285,  290. 

Judah,  T.  D.,  railroad  surveyor 
and  originator  of  the  Central 
Pacific,  236. 

Judiciary,  inadequate  and  cor- 
rupt, 252-7;  the  protection  of 
recall,  258-269 ;  skilled  in  tech- 
nicalities, 512-3;  price  of  jus- 
tice in  America,  515. 

Jury  system,  254. 

Kearney,  D.,  on  the  sand  lots, 
354 ;  anti-Chinese  crusade,  353- 
355. 

King,  J.,  of  W.,  war  on  high 
crime,  188-9;  assassination  of, 
190. 

King,  T.  S.,  patriotism  and  loy- 
alty, 110. 

Kino,  Padre,  in  Primeria  Alta, 
51. 


556 


INDEX 


Labor,  throes  of,  375-99;  mili- 
tant attitude  of,  376;  nobility 
of,  378;  in  mediaeval  times, 
376;  in  its  relation  to  capital, 
376;  American  and  Asiatic, 
351-62;  emancipation  of,  379; 
need  of  protection,  391;  the 
foundation  of  capital,  protec- 
tion by  government,  382;  de- 
serves a  fair  wage,  384;  the 
proper  wage,  price  per  hour, 
necessity  of  unionism,  381; 
boycotts  and  strikes  unneces- 
sary and  iniquitous,  391; 
criminality  of  strikes,  391-3; 
of  boycotting  and  blacklisting, 
392;  conditions  in  San  Fran- 
cisco, 467-9;  in  other  cities, 
468-77;  prosperity  of  free 
cities,  482. 

Labor  leaders,  the  walking  dele- 
gate, 378;  becomes  arrogant, 
then  tyrannical,  as  office-hold- 
ers a  curse  to  the  community, 
387;  evil  influence  of,  387-9. 

Land,  early  mid-continent  values, 
75;  aboriginal,  ownership  of, 
139. 

Land  titles,  Mexican  grants  and 
mining  titles,  108;  Mexican 
land  titles,  108,  109;  in  Cali- 
fornia, 309. 

Langdon,  W.  H.,  his  good  work 
as  district  attorney,  246-9. 

Larkin,  T.  0.,  family  and  official 
archives,  373. 

Latin  race  in  America,  158. 

Law,  injustice  of,  250;  erratic 
courses  of,  25 1 ;  further  vaga- 
ries of,  252-9;  futility  of 
precedents,  257 ;  as  a  fetish, 
252-7;  vigilance  and  law,  263- 


265 ;  slow  process  of,  275 ;  the 
profession  of  and  respect  for, 
515. 

Lee,  R.  E.,  a  great  soldier,  231. 

Leon,  J.  P.  de,  in  search  of 
Utopia,  22. 

Lesseps,  F.  de,  work  on  isthmus 
canal  and  sale,  542-3. 

Lewis  and  Clarke,  expedition,  56. 

Library,  the  Bancroft,  evolution 
of,  301;  beginning,  302;  prog- 
ress, 303-20. 

Lick,  J.,  mind  and  heart,  457; 
character,  life  and  death,  457- 
458. 

Licking  Land   Co.,  76. 

"  Literary  Industries,"  acknowl- 
edgments in,  338. 

Los  Angeles,  early  jealousy  of 
San  Diego,  160;  good  men 
saved  the  city  and  brought 
prosperity,  498. 

Louisiana  purchase,  Napoleon 
and  Monroe,  5,  547. 

Madero,  insurrection  and  an- 
archy, 299. 

Magellan,  F.  de,  voyage,  534. 

Manufactures,  early,  201 ;  decline 
of,  233;  necessity  for,  468-78. 

Marshall.  J.,  discovers  gold,  90. 

Maximilian  and  the  French  in- 
tervention, 290;  death,  291; 
imperial  library,  purchased  for 
the  Bancroft  collection,  313- 
314. 

McKinley,  W.,  Spanish  War  pol- 
icy, 12. 

Meiggs,  H.,  honest  Harry,  de- 
faulter, 281. 


INDEX 


557 


Menendez,  P.,  a  rather  menda- 
cious story  teller,  full  account 
of  Anian  strait,  528-30. 

Methods  of  writing  history,  319- 
344. 

Metropolitan  San  Francisco,  455- 
484;  troubles,  459. 

Mexican  people,  mixed  breeds, 
their  improvement,  286. 

Mexico,  war  with,  6,  63,  211. 

Migrations  and  development,  54- 
73;  from  New  England,  54; 
from  Virginia,  55. 

Mills,  D.  O.,  in  the  mines,  112; 
Bank  of  California,  205. 

Mills  of  the  gods,  172-193. 

Miners  of  California,  character- 
istics of,  163-4;  ever-vary- 
ing qualities,  166-7;  misrep- 
resented by  romancers,  166; 
typical  man,  167;  chivalry  of, 
96;  representative  San  Fran- 
cisco men  in  the  mines,  min- 
ing development,  70;  foreign 
miners'  tax,  133. 

Missions  of  California,  charac- 
teristics of,  27;  property,  28; 
secularization,  28;  extent  of, 
175. 

Mississippi  bubble,  23. 

Mississippi  valley,  occupation  of, 
56. 

Modern  journalism,  400-413. 

Moncacht  Ape",  journey  down  the 
Columbia,  67. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  Utopia,  24. 

Mormons,  origin  and  history, 
29-41 ;  religion,  30-7 ;  book  of, 
30,  33;  miracles  and  revela- 
tions, 36 ;  search  for  a  Saints' 
Rest,  70;  contingent  by  water; 


Santa  FC"  battalion,  70;  in 
Utah,  70;  encounters  with 
emigrants,  72;  in  California 
mines,  99. 


National  turnpike,  effect  on 
progress,  59. 

Natural  resources,  monopolists 
of,  227. 

Negro,  the,  his  position  in  Amer- 
ica, 367 ;  slavery  and  freedom, 
368;  as  an  American  citizen, 
369,  504. 

Nemos,  a  nameless  nobleman, 
306. 

New  France,  decadence  of,  52. 

New  land  and  new  people,  149- 
171. 

New  World,  primitive  conditions, 
21. 

Nicaragua,  proposed  ship  canal, 
routes  and  explorations,  540- 
544;  U.  S.  negotiations,  20. 

Niza,  M.  de,  journey  to  New 
Mexico,  43. 

Nootka  convention,  3. 

Northern  mystery,  fable  and 
falsehood,  44 ;  disappearance 
of,  50,  529. 

Northwest  Coast,  occupation  of, 
1 ;  fur-trade,  3. 

Nugent,  J.,  he  and  his  "  Herald," 
191. 


Octopus,  as  railroad  manipu- 
lators, rulers  of  the  people, 
and  witnesses  in  court,  232-8; 
teachings  of,  241 ;  blighting 
breath,  245. 


558 


INDEX 


Ohio,  valley  of,  and  settlement, 
75;  Ohio  Yankees  at  home, 
74-89. 

Onate,  J.  de,  on  Colorado,  46. 

Oregon,  question,  3 ;  "  Fifty-four- 
forty  or  fight,"  4;  people  of, 
158. 

Osio,  J.,  his  history  and  docu- 
ments as  material  for  Mr. 
Bancroft,  313. 

Overland  travel,  emigrants  and 
adventurers,  66-94. 

Owen,  J.,  buys  New  Harmony, 
25. 


Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Co.,  in- 
fluence for  good  and  evil,  108. 

Pacific  Ocean,  discovery  of,  118; 
U.  S.  frontage  on,  2;  coast 
line,  4;  waste  of  water,  49; 
wealth  of  shores,  67;  poten- 
tialities of,  475. 

Panama  canal,  early  schemes 
and  efforts,  540-1 ;  surveys  for, 
543-6;  work  of  de  Lesseps  and 
sale,  543-5;  significance  of, 
521-6;  Napoleon  considers  it, 
546;  dimensions  of  canal,  9; 
what  it  will  accomplish,  524- 
525;  its  influence  on  Califor- 
nia, 476;  on  New  York,  477. 

Panama,  city  of,  old  town  and 
new,  121 ;  entrepot  of  the  Pa- 
cific, 521-2;  the  city  in  1541, 
119;  importance  of,  in  early 
times,  521. 

Panama,  isthmus  of,  romance  re- 
garding, 118;  glory  of  other 
days,  118-9;  key  to  New  World 
commerce,  120;  explorations 
and  surveys,  541-6. 


Panama  railway,  construction 
and  sale  of,  122,  543;  Chinese 
laborers,  122. 

Panama,  state  of,  purchase  of 
canal  zone,  8;  fortification  pol- 
icy, 14-15. 

Passes  and  routes  overland,  and 
through  the  mountains,  67-8. 

Patriotism,  loss  of,  504;  stand- 
ard of  citizenship  lowered,  505. 

Patterson,  W.,  Darien  settlement, 
22-3. 

Penn,  W.,  his  Utopia,  24;  pur- 
chase of  American  lands  from 
the  English  king,  138;  deal- 
ings with  the  Indians,  139-40; 
a  sixteenth-century  conscience, 
139;  rights  of  aboriginal  land- 
owners, 140. 

Petrof,  I.,  voyages  to  Alaska  and 
Russia  for  the  Bancroft  Li- 
brary, 305,  342. 

Phelan,  J.  D.,  his  municipal 
administration,  245 ;  crusade 
against  crime,  271;  good  work 
accomplished,  490. 

Philippines,  undesirable  posses- 
sions, 14. 

Pike  and  Long  in  the  Rocky 
mountains,  67. 

Pinart,  A.,  French  savant,  306; 
collector  and  writer,  306;  his 
valuable  material  secured  by 
Mr.  Bancroft,  306-12. 

Pioneers  who  were  not  pioneers, 
171. 

Pirates,  Morgan  at  Panama,  121. 

Pixley,  F.,  his  "  Argonaut "  and 
virulent  scores  of  Stanford, 
234-5. 


INDEX 


559 


Pizarro,  F.,  at  Panama,  119;  on 
the  Atrato,  533. 

Plains,  mystery  of,  42-53;  land 
of  enchantment,  48;  pathways 
of,  51,  62;  garden  of  the  gods, 
65;  a  prolific  amphitheatre, 
65;  letting  in  the  light,  50; 
entrances  and  trails,  51;  con- 
quest of,  144. 

Polygamy,  Mormon  revelations 
concerning,  36;  established  in 
Utah,  40. 

Population  of  U.  S.  in  1790, 
156;  of  early  California,  103; 
changes  in  character  of,  151-5; 
centres  of,  157;  west  coast 
types,  163-7;  quality  of,  in  the 
mines,  166-7. 

Presidents  of  U.  S.,  211-2;  some 
characteristics,  231. 

Primary  election,  change  of,  505. 

Progressive  government,  485- 
503;  significance  and  purpose, 
503;  what  Hiram  Johnson  did, 
497;  the  work  of  Roosevelt, 
503 ;  men  of  Los  Angeles,  498 ; 
a  model  legislature,  500 ; 
Burns  and  Ruef,  501. 

Prosecution  of  high  criminals  not 
a  failure,  271-3. 

Proselyting,  spirit  of,  18;  vari- 
ous methods,  18-20. 

Ptolemy  and  the  conjectural 
geography  of  1530,  529. 

Pueblos  of  California,  179. 

Puritans,  arrival  of,  and  atti- 
tude toward  the  natives,  137. 


Quakers  as  colonists,   153. 
Quivira,  mythical  city  of,  43. 


Race,  new  combinations  and 
blendings  in  U.  S.,  101;  in 
California,  115;  other  forma- 
tions, intermixtures,  and  de- 
velopments, 149-52 ;  predomi- 
nance in  U.  S.,  161-3. 

Railroads  overland,  incipiency, 
69. 

Railway  methods  bring  distress, 
322. 

Ralston,  W.  C.,  life  and  death, 
204. 

Ramairez,  J.  F.,  valuable  mate- 
rial for  the  Bancroft  Library, 
312. 

Ramusio,  remarks  on  open  mid- 
continent  sea,  527. 

Recall,  the,  operation  of,  506; 
as  applied  to  the  judiciary, 
509-512;  opposition  to,  506; 
untenable  attitude  of  Taft, 
510. 

Referendum,  nature  and  opera- 
tions of,  506. 

Republic,  moral  decadence  of, 
504. 

Republicanism,  phases  of,  284; 
an  indefinite  quantity,  286; 
what  is  it?  487. 

Roads,  national  and  historic,  60; 
pathways  of  the  plains,  64; 
Cumberland  gap,  74. 

Rolph,  J.,  Jr.,  elected  mayor,  283 ; 
institutes  important  measures, 
491;  efficiency  and  popularity, 
520. 

Roosevelt,  T.,  secures  Panama 
canal,  6-8;  his  great  work, 
229-231;  what  the  world  owes 
him,  497;  what  California 
owes  him,  498;  ever  one  of  the 
world's  great  men,  490,  503. 


560 


INDEX 


Routes  overland,  67. 

Ruef,  A.,  a  university  blossom 
out  of  season,  274;  genius  for 
civic  debauchery,  240;  his  ca- 
reer, 245-6;  some  of  his 
achievements,  501 ;  silly  senti- 
mentalism  regarding  him,  340. 

Sacramento,  as  seen  in  '49,  130. 

Salt  Lake  valley,  occupied  by  the 
Mormons,  39-40. 

San  Diego,  as  seen  in  '49,  127; 
civic  individualism,  159;  fa- 
ther Horton  and  the  brothers 
Kimball,  159-60. 

San  Francisco,  site,  172;  first 
inhabitants,  173;  sectional  ri- 
valry; the  name,  173;  a  metro- 
politan city,  455;  coming  of 
the  friars,  456;  model  climate, 
458;  fires  of  '49  and  '50,  459; 
as  seen  in  '49,  128,  131;  flush 
times  traffic,  102;  houses  and 
streets,  104;  living  expenses, 
103;  suffering,  104;  catas- 
trophe of  1906  compared,  105; 
society,  103;  the  cholera,  105; 
steamer  day,  126;  the  Hounds 
and  Regulators,  180-1;  regen- 
eration, 208;  in  the  early 
fifties,  typical  gambling  house, 
124;  surveys  and  naming  of 
streets,  177;  Bartlett,  alcalde 
and  map  maker,  newspapers, 
175;  sickness,  460;  the  great 
fire  of  1906,  461;  "Paris  in 
America,"  462;  rehabilitation, 
463;  hard  times,  464;  failures, 
465;  manufactures,  470;  ad- 
vantages and  opportunities  for 
marketing,  470-2;  labor  con- 
ditions, 466;  climate  and  food 


supply,  470;  industries  stran- 
gled by  labor  leaders,  479;  an 
enslaved  city,  480;  the  city 
and  bay  a  hundred  years 
hence,  473;  influence  of  Pana- 
ma canal,  476;  the  city  noth- 
ing without  manufactures,  479- 
483. 

San  Jose",  as  seen  in  '49,   129. 

Santa  F<?  trail,  a  historic  high- 
way, 60. 

Savagism  and  civilization,  48-9; 
rights  and  wrongs  of,  138-41. 

Schmitz,    E.,    labor    leader    and 

mayor,  245. 

Scott,  Dr.,  escapade,  207. 
Scott,    T.,    projected    railway   to 

San  Diego,   148. 

Seattle,  the  old  chief's  people, 
305. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  checks  French  in- 
tervention, 289-91. 

Shipping  at  San  Francisco  bay 
in  '49,  93;  colonial,  2;  ship 
subsidy,  17. 

Significance  of  the  Panama  canal, 
521-547;  to  some  it  has  no 
significance,  526. 

Slavery  in  the  colonies,  54. 

Smith,  Joseph,  founder  of  Mor- 
monism,  29-35 ;  polygamy  or- 
dered, 36-7 ;  death,  37. 

Society,  colonial,  55;  vagaries  of, 
414;  decadence  of  the  idle  rich, 
415;  kings  and  princesses,  416; 
sham  and  conventionalities, 
417;  international  marriages, 
wealth  and  display.  419-23; 
health  conditions,  414;  alco- 
holic parentage,  415:  classes, 
416;  origin  of  sham,  417; 


INDEX 


561 


slavery,  418;  high  and  low  so- 
ciety, 419;  fashion,  418;  gra- 
dations, 421;  criminal  class, 
422;  standards  of  superiority, 
424;  the  climbers,  428;  what 
constitutes  the  best  society, 
430 ;  smart  and  silly  sets,  427 ; 
vice  and  virtue,  417;  so-called 
good  society,  430;  interracial 
marriages,  420 ;  the  newly  rich, 
424;  gradations,  424;  crim- 
inality, 425. 

Southern  chivalry,  misrule  of, 
197. 

Southern  Pacific  railway,  repris- 
als, 160;  intimacy  with  the 
courts,  513. 

South  sea  bubble,  23. 

Specific  contract  law,  207. 

Spreckels,  R.,  finances  reform, 
246. 

Squier,  E.  G.,  historical  collec- 
tion purchased  for  the  Ban- 
croft Library,  312. 

Stanford,  L.,  his  dealings  with 
his  artist,  147;  as  a  witness, 
245;  his  school  of  business 
ethics,  235;  made  himself  sen- 
ator, 234-6. 

Steamboats,  Fulton's  invention, 
58;  on  the  Mississippi,  62; 
first  Atlantic  and  Pacific  line, 
92;  steam  traffic  in  1852,  122. 

Stockton,  as  seen  in  '49,  130. 

Sullivan,  M.  I.,  a  worker  for 
civic  betterments,  490. 

Sutter,  J.  A.,  gold  discovery,  90; 
character  of,  90-1;  ambition, 
91;  purpose  in  coming  to  Cali- 
fornia, secures  land,  91;  lays 
out  Sacramento  city,  97; 
ruined  by  miners  and  squat- 


ters, 98;   wealth  and  opportu- 
nity lost,  98. 


Taft,  W.  H.,  failure  to  fulfil  his 
trust,  229;  disappointment  of 
his  supporters,  294;  his  asso- 
ciates, 296;  disgraceful  elec- 
tioneering, his  craze  for  hold- 
ing office,  295;  unfaithful,  un- 
reliable, and  incompetent,  229- 
230. 

Taylor,  E.  R.,  good  government 
mayor,  249. 

Tehuantepec,  projected  ship  ca- 
nal, and  Eads'  ship  railroad 
scheme,  538. 

Telegraph  hill,  for  ballast,  126. 

Terry,  D.  S.,  as  handled  by  the 
Vigilance  Committee,  191;  kills 
Broderick,  200;  is  killed  by 
Judge  Field's  man,  263. 

Tevis,  L.,  in  the  mines,  112. 

Throes  of  labor,  375-99. 

Tipping,  blackmail  fed  by  vanity 
and  cowardice,  435. 

Torquemada,  tells  of  river  and 
strait  of  Anian,  and  city  of 
Quivira,  531. 

Towns,  birth  of,  203. 

Trade,  California,  in  '49,  102; 
trend  of,  481. 

Transportation,  earliest  factor  of 
progress,  94;  a  vital  force, 
146. 


Union   labor,   in   elections,    269; 

unionizing  of  labor  a  necessity, 

381. 
United    States,    construction    of, 

1;  ocean  frontages,  2;  attitude 


562 


INDEX 


in  international  affairs,  10-13; 
insane  policy  regarding  the 
Chinese,  348;  foreign  miners' 
tax,  360. 

United  States,  position  before  the 
world,  213. 

Utah,  settlement  of,  39 ;  the  Mor- 
mons and  the  emigrants,  72. 

Utopian  dreams  and  altruistic 
ideals,  18-41. 

Vaca,  Cabeza  de,  journey  over- 
land, 43. 

Vagaries  of  society,  414-435. 

Vallejo,  M.  G.,  flush  with  gold, 
102;  offer  of  state  capital,  173; 
historical  collection,  309;  se- 
cured by  the  Bancroft  Library, 
310-11;  Historia  de  California 
written  as  historical  material 
for  Mr.  Bancroft,  311. 

Veniaminof,  I.,  Aleut  material 
for  Mr.  Bancroft,  313. 

Vigilance  Committee,  rise  of  jus- 
tice, 181-4;  organization  of, 
185;  work  accomplished,  186; 
organization  of  1856,  grand 
parade  and  disbandment,  186- 
188;  deliverance  by,  195. 


Virginian,  the,  characteristics  of, 
157. 


Wages,  the  problem  of  labor,  386, 
396;  per  hour  plan,  397;  in 
U.  S.  and  Europe,  480. 

War,  now  and  then,  46-7;  for 
the  Union,  220;  effect  on  Pa- 
cific railway,  232-4. 

Waste  in  education,  436-454. 

Wealth,  increase  of,  16;  evil  in- 
fluence of,  210;  criminal  pas- 
sion for,  217. 

Weber,  C.,  founder  of  Stockton, 
107. 

Works,  J.  D.,  elected  U.  S.  sena- 
tor, 500;  on  the  recall  of  the 
judiciary,  509. 

Yerba    Buena,   cove   and    island, 

172;  first  inhabitants,  456. 
Young,  Brigham,  personality  and 

conversion  to  Mormonism,  36; 

becomes   head   and   guide,   38; 

in  Utah,  39-41. 

Zinzendorf's  Moravians,  25. 
Zufii,  as  first  reported,  43. 


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